Rabat – This year’s Eid Al Adha will be the fourth time Morocco cancelled The Islamic sacrificial festival in the history of the country.
King Mohammed VI today output The Moroccans call for directives not to carry out Eid al Adha due to severe economic and social challenges caused by six years of drought.
The decision also comes as part of Islamic law and verses, which emphasizes the need for measures to terminate the need and crisis of the citizens that could harm people with lower income.
In his guidelines, the monarch said that when he celebrated the festival of sacrifice is an obligatory action and sunnight, the victim is a “confirmed Sunna if it is feasible”.
He explained: “Under these difficult circumstances, many of our people, especially those with a limited income, would cause real damage.”
While the decision seems to be a first of its kind, this is not the first time that Morocco can cancel Eid al Adha.
The North African kingdom met decades ago during the reign of the late King Hassan II.
The first time was in 1963 when the deceased king announced the cancellation of the sacrificial ritual during the “sand war” between Morocco and Algeria. The war influenced the economies of the two countries and prompted the decision to cancel the festival in order to avoid unbearable effects on the citizens.
The second time was when Morocco suffered from a severe drought in 1981, while the third time in 1996 was peaked in 1995 due to a long months.
Several reports have highlighted the effects of drought in Morocco’s history.
“By far the highest impact was felt in 1981 (almost 1 billion USD), and in 2000 the muesli deficit reached a value of around $ 530 million or almost 4% of state expenditure for this financial year (FAO 2018)” report.
The country resigned from similar conditions in 1995, mainly due to another drought crisis.
“The severe drought from 1994-1995 led to larger fiscal deficits in 1994 and 1995”, an overview of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed.
On Tuesday, France 24 published an interview in which Agriculture Minister Ahmed Bouari shared concerns about the drought situation. He found that water reserves in Moroccan insulation do not exceed 4.6 billion cubic meters with a filling rate of 28%.
Due to the drought, Morocco has increasingly turned to the international market to import products that are necessary to meet the needs of the country.
Some of the measures include importing cattle from countries such as Romania and Australia. Bringing meat out of the international market has long been a problem for some Moroccans, with many concerns about the quality of the products.
