Trump adopts US Appropriations Bill, including the Sahara in funds granted to Morocco

After It was adopted by the houses of the US Congress, the 2019 fiscal year has been signed Friday, February the 15th, by the US President Donald Trump. The Appropriations Bill explicitly states that «the funds appropriated [to Morocco] under Title III shall also be made available for assistance in the Sahara».

On Friday evening, a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and sent to Yabiladi, indicated that «the Kingdom of Morocco welcomes» this adoption.

«The US executive and legislative powers, embodied respectively by the President and the two Houses of the Congress, agree to consider the Sahara region as an integral part of Morocco and to make it benefit from co-operation funds in the same way as all the other regions of the Kingdom,» the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation underlines in a statement.

Morocco welcomes the decision

To the Ministry, «this development in the United States occurs a few days after the adoption by the European Union of the agriculture and fisheries agreements that will apply to the entire national territory, including the Moroccan Sahara,» the ministry points out.

This new Appropriations Bill calls on the US Administration to submit, after consultation with UNHCR and the World Food Program, «a report to the Congress on the measures taken to strengthen the monitoring of the delivery of humanitarian aid to refugees in the region of North Africa», which is a clear allusion to the population in the Tindouf camps, the ministry says, noting that these provisions reflect concerns on the documented diversions and trafficking of international aid sent to the populations in these camps.