"We are very grateful and very happy with this brotherhood and this solidarity in these very difficult times that the continent and the world are going through due to the coronavirus pandemic," the AU Commissioner told MAP.

Mrs. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko expressed her "gratitude for this great royal gesture" as well as "her heartfelt thanks to His Majesty the King and to the Moroccan government for this generosity towards his African brothers".

She also noted "the great importance" of the Moroccan aid which was also sent to the African Union Commission as it will improve the effectiveness of the work carried out by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The initiative to send medical equipment and products made in Morocco will encourage other states to set up a medicine industry, said the AU Commissioner, adding that it is time “to take our destiny into own hands and our sovereignty in all economic sectors”.

HM King Mohammed VI has given his high instructions to send a medical aid to several African countries to support their efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The medical aid sent to these countries includes some 8 million medical masks, 900,000 protective visors, 600,000 hygiene caps, 60,000 medical gowns, 30,000 liters of hydroalcoholic gel, 75,000 boxes of chloroquine and 15,000 boxes of Azithromycin.

This solidarity action is part of the implementation of the Initiative launched by HM the King on April 13, 2020, as a pragmatic and action-oriented approach, intended to the brotherly African countries, enabling the sharing of experiences and good practices and aiming to establish an operational framework in order to support their efforts in the various phases of the management of the pandemic.