MEDI1TV Afrique : LE GRAND JOURNAL MIDI - 18/12/2024
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00:00Welcome back to Mediham TV. It's time for the big news of the afternoon.
00:21We start with the headlines.
00:23The Moroccan cultural year has come to an end yesterday in Doha.
00:28His Royal Highness Princess Lala Hasna and His Excellency Sheikh Sarabint Hamid Al Thani
00:33presided over the spectacular Tbourida show. We'll talk about it in a few moments.
00:4210 days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government,
00:50the UN Security Council calls for an inclusive political process led by the Syrians.
00:56The United States wants to show optimism and realism
01:04about the prospect of a truce in the Gaza Strip. We'll talk about it in a few moments.
01:10Doha, Morocco
01:16We'll start with the headlines.
01:20The Moroccan cultural year has come to an end yesterday in Doha.
01:24His Royal Highness Princess Lala Hasna and His Excellency Sheikh Sarabint Hamid Al Thani
01:31presided over the spectacular Tbourida show.
01:39The Moroccan cultural year has come to an end yesterday in Doha.
01:41Here, the two countries celebrate their exceptional fraternal ties.
01:47This traditional, popular metal-honored equestrian show,
01:51engraved in gold leaf in the heritage of the Moroccans,
01:54is held to celebrate holiday moments.
01:56It has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage since 2021.
02:09Oh, God.
02:11Oh, God.
02:13Oh, God.
02:15Oh, God.
02:17Oh, God.
02:19Oh, God.
02:21Oh, God.
02:23Oh, God.
02:25Oh, God.
02:27Oh, God.
02:29Oh, God.
02:31Oh, God.
02:33Oh, God.
02:35Oh, God.
02:37Oh, God.
02:39In Morocco, the High Commissioner of the Plan has raised the veil on the detailed results of the general census of the population and the Habitat 2024,
02:48an operation of great importance since it draws the outlines of a Morocco in the middle of a demographic but also economic and social transition.
02:56The High Commissioner of the Plan, Shakib Ben Moussa, has in particular commented on the unemployment rate,
03:02which went from 16.2% in 2014 to 21.3% in 2024.
03:09So, on this indicator, I propose to listen to Hichem's analysis.
03:15So, he is a professor of economics and finance. Let's watch.
03:18The results that the last census of September 2024 revealed,
03:23in fact, a slightly mixed situation in terms of socio-economic development.
03:29There are advances and progress that are certain in certain areas,
03:32but of course there is a huge delay in other elements,
03:37more particularly the element that you have just pointed out,
03:40that of the rate of activity of the elderly over the age of 15,
03:44which has gone from 47% to about 41%,
03:48and which has actually allowed to record this staggering unemployment rate,
03:52which was not surprising for a lot of reasons, which is about 21%.
03:57That means that for a decade, from 2014 to 2024,
04:01on average, in fact, Moroccans work less than they did before,
04:06knowing that we had in our imagination, in our perception of things,
04:10that there were infrastructures, that there are advances, that there are progress,
04:14that must generate employment, that must generate activity.
04:16But that was, let's say, the big surprise,
04:19which was more or less expected for a lot of reasons,
04:22maybe we will come back to it later.
04:24But next to this element, there is, of course,
04:27some progress in terms of funding, infrastructure, housing,
04:33access to electricity, which is almost generalized.
04:36So, to try to summarize, on some elements,
04:39we have done more than the world average,
04:42if we want to compare ourselves to a benchmark,
04:44but on other elements, we are really behind.
04:47And on that, maybe we should be careful,
04:49try to learn from it, to try to catch up with the delay.
04:53The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted its tenth resolution
04:57for a moratorium on the application of the death penalty.
05:00The resolution was adopted with 130 votes in favor,
05:0432 votes against and 22 abstentions.
05:07In this text, the UN Institute asks all States
05:11to institute a moratorium on executions in order to establish the death penalty.
05:16It congratulates, in particular, measures taken by States
05:20to reduce the number of possible infractions of the death penalty
05:23and limit the application of it,
05:26especially by means of commutation of penalties,
05:29as planned, Morocco voted for this resolution.
05:36The UN Security Council called for the political process in Syria
05:39to be inclusive and led by the Syrians.
05:43Members of the Council also stressed the need
05:46that Syria and its neighbors abstain from any action or interference,
05:50which could harm the security of the other.
05:52This political process must meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians,
05:56protect them all and allow them to peacefully,
06:01independently and democratically,
06:03determine their own future,
06:05said the UN Security Council.
06:11Syria, where life is gradually resuming,
06:13especially on a diplomatic level,
06:15with the reopening of embassies,
06:18but also a persistent humanitarian crisis.
06:21The other challenge to be tackled is the expensiveness of food products,
06:25but also of fuel.
06:27The developments on this subject by Hala Benani.
06:31Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad,
06:33several countries have begun to establish diplomatic contacts,
06:37with the new authorities in power of Hezbollah,
06:40which took control of Damascus.
06:42Several embassies have reopened symbolically,
06:45waiting for diplomatic missions and their personnel to officially settle there.
06:53The Turkish embassy reopened a few days ago,
06:56the same for the French and Qatari embassies.
07:00It's good to see this return to normal,
07:03because the existence of foreign embassies in the country is a good sign
07:08and it makes life easier for students and merchants too.
07:15However, the country is still in a state of fever.
07:18The conflict is not over yet.
07:21This is what the UN special envoy on his part warned on Tuesday,
07:24evoking clashes in the north of the country.
07:32There have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks
07:35before a ceasefire was negotiated
07:38between the Kurdish Syrian forces and the groups supported by Turkey.
07:43A five-day ceasefire has now expired
07:46and I am deeply concerned by information
07:49about a military escalation that could be catastrophic in the region.
07:55For his part, the Secretary-General of Humanitarian Affairs
07:58wanted to reassure that the situation is beginning to stabilize.
08:01Markets, roads, health establishments are increasingly operational.
08:05Children are returning to their nursery.
08:08Humanitarian operations are gradually resuming in most cities
08:11that suffer from a large shortage of food products,
08:14as well as in many other areas of the country.
08:17Humanitarian operations are gradually resuming in most cities
08:20that suffer from a large shortage of food products,
08:23as well as in many other areas of the country.
08:26The UN has also advised refugees to return to Syria at the same time
08:30because the infrastructure could not withstand such an influx.
08:38We stay in the Middle East with the United States
08:41who say they want to show careful optimism and realism
08:44about the prospect of a truce in the Gaza Strip.
08:47According to the spokesman of the US Department of State,
08:50the United States can only try to find compromises
08:53but cannot dictate to one or the other party
08:56the choices it must make.
08:59Hamas, on the other hand, said yesterday
09:02that the discussions held in Qatar in view of a truce agreement
09:05in Gaza were serious and positive.
09:09Serious and positive negotiations are the words of Hamas
09:12to describe the discussions held in Qatar
09:15in view of a ceasefire in Gaza.
09:18He also affirms that it is possible to reach an agreement
09:21to put down the weapons and an exchange of prisoners
09:24if the occupation ceases to impose new conditions.
09:27I hope the spokesmen will be honest this time
09:30and not random as before.
09:33We really want the war to stop.
09:37Because we are exhausted and exhausted.
09:42These discussions follow the visit to Doha
09:45on September 11 of the chief of Mossad David Barnea,
09:48although there is no indication that he is participating
09:51in the talks underway, according to the Israeli Defense Minister
09:54Israel Katz.
09:57Israeli negotiators have never been so close
10:00to an agreement on the liberation of hostages
10:04I am not very optimistic, but I pray to God
10:07that everything ends well and in peace.
10:10I hope that everyone will be able to return home,
10:13to their home, to their neighborhood,
10:16and that everything will be resolved peacefully.
10:19The only truce was in November 2023.
10:22Since then, all media efforts are led by Egypt,
10:25the United States and Qatar to obtain a new truce
10:28have failed. But for a few weeks,
10:31diplomatic efforts have resumed,
10:34this time led jointly by Washington,
10:37Cairo, Doha and Ankara.
10:40In Dakar, the organization for the promotion
10:43of the Senegal River and its partners
10:46have organized their very first forum together
10:49for a resilient basin in the face of climate change.
10:52This is the theme for this very first forum.
10:55The opportunity for the actors for the OMVS
10:58to find real solutions to strengthen
11:01the resilience of the basin.
11:07The basin of the Senegal River has recently experienced
11:10floods that have caused the displacement
11:13of many inhabitants of the region.
11:16It is in this context that the Senegalese and African actors
11:19of the environment have gathered in Dakar
11:22for the first edition of the forum of the organization
11:25If nothing is done now, the consequences
11:28will be more and more dramatic, not to say irreversible
11:31for our environment and consequently
11:34for our economies and for the lives of our communities.
11:37This is certainly what the OMVS understood
11:40when deciding to organize this forum
11:43in order to arouse reflection on appropriate
11:46and sustainable solutions in order to build
11:49a resilient future in all the countries of our basin.
11:52During this forum, experts on issues related
11:55to climate change addressed various themes
11:58and proposed solutions for a resilient basin
12:01in the face of this disaster.
12:04This is the case with the question of hydraulic works.
12:07We need modelling, we need computer tools
12:10that allow us to make better predictions,
12:13to have piloting tools,
12:16tools that allow us to manage
12:19these works on a day-to-day basis.
12:28This edition was an opportunity to reward the laureates
12:31of the project call together for a basin
12:34of the Senegal Resilient River in the face of climate change.
12:37The Aradès Association was awarded this award.
12:40It is a water plant,
12:43and also an invasive plant,
12:46which has long been transformed
12:49by the Walo population.
12:52Its name in Wolof is Djakar,
12:55in French we say Nenufar.
12:58It is a plant that is transformed by women
13:01into semolina, flour,
13:04and today into cosmetics,
13:07specifically into soap and oil.
13:10Of course, with the collaboration of scientists
13:13and other groups of women
13:16who make soap with the women
13:19of the village of Sarnar.
13:22The OMVS, which brings together several countries
13:25of the sub-region, has also offered African business leaders
13:28the opportunity to promote their expertise
13:31through an exhibition.
13:34It's time to invite the big news.
13:37Today, December 18, we celebrate
13:40the International Migration Day,
13:43the opportunity to return to the evolution
13:46of human mobility, a natural phenomenon
13:49since the dawn of time and whose causes are many
13:52and multiple, climatic, economic,
13:55but also political.
13:58So, what is the state of the places
14:01of these migratory flows today,
14:04especially on our continent, but also in Morocco?
14:07Today, we are in Mobility and Migration
14:10at the Center for Global Studies at the International University of Rabat.
14:13Hello and welcome.
14:16Hello, thank you for having me.
14:19So, I propose to start with migration
14:22on our continent, intra-African migration,
14:25since these are often
14:28perceived ideas that speak
14:31of a migration to Europe.
14:34With a very precise terminology,
14:37which is that of a migratory crisis.
14:40And in this area, words count, words have weight.
14:43Tell us about this intra-African migration
14:46which has increased by 44%, it seems to me,
14:49since 2010. And give us figures.
14:52What is the reality of migratory movements
14:55in Africa today?
14:58Indeed, the narrative, if I dare say,
15:01around these questions of migration and mobility,
15:04essentially African, are very often biased, instrumentalized.
15:07So, it is very important to put the facts
15:10on the table, which is the reality on the ground.
15:13So, the global proportion of migrants
15:16has been more or less stable since the 90s.
15:19So, we have gone from
15:223% since the 90s to today.
15:25So, there is no international migratory wave,
15:28there is no international crisis
15:31of migrants, of mobility.
15:34There is more or less a crisis of welcome and migratory policies
15:37among the recipients of these people who are
15:40in search of infinite better opportunities for life.
15:43So, the African population is essentially migrating to the continent.
15:46And I insist on this, essentially.
15:49To move, you need money. And the continent does not necessarily
15:52have all the means, and people in mobility do not necessarily have all these means.
15:55So, in search of a better future, people travel to the neighboring country
15:58or essentially to the sub-region that concerns them.
16:01Very few migrate to the outside of the continent.
16:04And among these very few, so let's say the order is
16:0770 to 80% stay on the continent.
16:10And those who go abroad are discerned
16:13on several geographies. We have Asia,
16:16we have the Gulf countries, but also Europe.
16:19Among these 20%, only a third join Europe.
16:22So, we do not have a massive invasion or a massive flow
16:25vis-à-vis Europe. These people are essentially educated,
16:28in search of better jobs,
16:31opportunities for the future, and they are young.
16:34And there is a large percentage, a large percentage, forgive me,
16:37of women in these flows.
16:40This represents more or less fifty percent.
16:43So, we have to put these perspectives back on the table.
16:46And it is a bit of these alarmist perspectives that consider
16:49that Europe is being invaded by Africa.
16:52It's false, it's false, it's false.
16:55Migration management in Africa also involves,
16:58Yacine Benmortal, juggling
17:01between local needs,
17:04varied on one side, but also regional cooperation.
17:07Regional cooperation that is imposed
17:10to be able to meet the challenges
17:13that remain numerous, especially on the institutional
17:16and political front, as you just said.
17:19Indeed. In any case, on the political front
17:22and cooperation, we are facing a certain
17:25structural asymmetry vis-à-vis the European continent.
17:28In any case, if we take the perspective of the international
17:31referent organizations, the European Union on the side
17:34of the European continent and the African Union on our African side.
17:37There is, we have to seize these difficulties
17:40and, as we say in English, tackle the challenges.
17:43Take up arms, the body, these challenges and overthrow them.
17:46We cannot do it on the financial and economic level.
17:49In any case, we can do it on the level of ideas, philosophy
17:52and normative questions. How do we think
17:55things? How do we see things?
17:58So, for Europe, we see mobility and migratory issues
18:01as a concern, as a problem to solve, as a security perspective.
18:04Whereas on our continent, we see things
18:07completely differently. We see it as an opportunity
18:10for the future, as a question of development.
18:13So, this is about taking this challenge
18:16on the more or less ideological
18:19and doctrinal side.
18:22So, there are also many challenges.
18:25There is an institutional fragmentation, however,
18:28on our continent. We have a lot of actors
18:31who are on the issue, but who
18:34present a common way of doing things.
18:38And to take up arms, the body, these problems,
18:41which I try to observe in my research. I try to develop
18:44what can be qualified so far as an African regime
18:47of immigration governance, which is a set
18:50of characteristics that are specific to Africa.
18:53So, this will allow
18:56to change perspectives,
18:59in any case, on the narrative, but also
19:02to take up arms the worries in terms of limited institutional capacity.
19:06Because we have a lot of actors with very little means
19:09and very little human resources to think about things
19:12and do politics. Which is not the case on the other side
19:15of the Mediterranean, where we have
19:18extremely well-established structures with
19:21phenomenal budgets. We just have the European policy
19:24of neighborhood, which makes 1 to 20 the budgetary report
19:27of the EU budget entirely.
19:30So, there are a lot of things to do and the continent
19:33is trying to do these things.
19:36So, how are we going to do the continent?
19:39We will continue to talk about this specific African governance
19:42in the direction of these migrations
19:45and these mobilities. African migrants
19:48bring a precious contribution to society,
19:51whether through fund transfers, but also
19:54skills and cultural exchanges.
19:57This is the African look through a specific governance.
20:01But how can the continent value
20:04this narrative on migration,
20:07by putting forward first
20:10the contributions to development and the resilience
20:13of societies in a
20:16fairly recent context. It is a new look
20:19that must be put in place
20:22and also convince, I imagine, Yacine Benmurtar.
20:25Exactly.
20:29It is not an easy question, it is an extremely complex task.
20:32We all have a more or less subjective story
20:35in connection with migration. We all came from somewhere,
20:38let's go somewhere. Which explains
20:41the animation that people have
20:44vis-à-vis these questions. But in any case, on the question of the
20:47African narrative, it is a very important question.
20:50Because we have to change this perception.
20:53Again, there is no crisis of mobility,
20:56there is a crisis of welcome, a crisis of migratory policies.
20:59So again, the African population
21:02remains on the continent. In other words, it is up to Africa
21:05to answer its own questions.
21:08To answer this,
21:11we have to put forward the successes. There are a lot of successes.
21:14There are a lot of countries, such as Morocco in this case,
21:17but many other countries that have a very good
21:20management of migration and that can have answers
21:23to these problems and which African countries
21:26can aspire to. We have the solutions
21:29to our own problems and we should also
21:32be given the opportunity as a continent to respond
21:35to these same problems there by our own means.
21:38Local narratives must be valued because
21:41in the end, as you said earlier, it is subjective, it is micro,
21:44it belongs to the experience of everyone,
21:47individually, in terms of family, in terms of
21:50parents or international networks,
21:53than to show what is happening, how it is happening
21:56and why there are concerns or problems
21:59that are put forward on the migratory routes.
22:02Partnerships must also be strengthened between
22:05African countries, but also between regional economic communities,
22:08the CERs, such as the CDAO,
22:11the UN, the Maghreb Arab Union,
22:14or the SADE, which is in the south.
22:17As I said earlier, initially, migrations are mainly
22:20on the continent, but even more particularly
22:23within regional subsets. For example,
22:26the CDAO already has free movement protocols
22:29that are much more advanced than in other regions of the world
22:32so as not to speak of the same level
22:35as the European Schengen, at least on the way to joining
22:38this model. We have the normative and legal tools.
22:41Political will must follow,
22:44but as we are a very large, vast continent
22:47diversified with a very particular history,
22:50very often we see things from the European perspective
22:53while the reality on the ground is completely different.
22:56So Yacine Benmurtal, you were just talking
22:59about the tools at the service
23:02of this view of specific African governance
23:05in the direction of migration.
23:08Four years ago, day by day,
23:12on December 18, 2020, Morocco inaugurated
23:15the African Observatory of Migrations of the UAE.
23:18It is an observatory that has been in Rabat
23:21since December 18, 2020.
23:24What is its role?
23:27And above all, what are the missions accomplished
23:30since its creation?
23:33To highlight the observatory,
23:36this is the first case study of my research.
23:40This is where I do my field of research,
23:43to be able to try to demonstrate the viability
23:46and characteristics of this African regime of migration governance.
23:49Indeed, four years ago, day by day, the observatory
23:52was inaugurated and since 2022,
23:55it has a director who is at the head of operations,
23:58Ambassador Dr. Namira Nagm,
24:01who takes the questions to heart.
24:04Why was this observatory created?
24:07Because in 2016, heads of state from all over the world
24:10agreed on the need to have a new approach
24:13regarding mobility and new agreements on the issue,
24:16which led to the World Pact on Irregularly Ordered Migration,
24:19the Marrakech Pact, which was signed in 2018.
24:22The first objective of this pact
24:25is to generate the best data on the issue of mobility.
24:28And I like to say very often
24:31that the African response to this first challenge,
24:34to this first objective of the pact,
24:37was the creation of the African Migration Observatory.
24:40As I said earlier, we have to change the narrative.
24:43How can we change the narrative without proving facts?
24:46So the observatory aims to generate
24:49and collect from its member states of the African Union
24:52and African countries, data on the vast spectrum
24:55of migration and mobility.
24:58Once collected, the observatory is also supposed to analyze,
25:01but subsequently also disseminate
25:04these data to continental actors,
25:07sub-regional and national,
25:10but above all and essentially to the rest of the world.
25:13Africans know the reality on the ground.
25:16We have to change the narrative vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
25:19And we can't do it without having proving data.
25:22So the observatory is acting on this issue.
25:25It has done a lot of activity on this subject.
25:28I remember very well that they did this
25:31in the capacity building activity.
25:34In other words, we are not only collecting, analyzing and disseminating,
25:37but also strengthening the capacities of states
25:40to be able to speak in a convincing way
25:43about these issues, in any case, of a common vision on these issues.
25:47So in this context, Yacine Ben Mokhorta,
25:50how is cooperation between the European Union and African countries
25:53evolving today in terms of managing migratory flows?
25:57In particular, by strengthening this African vision of governance.
26:02Exactly. This is a more or less central question
26:05of my research, because in the end, the first partner
26:08of the African Union and the continent on the issue
26:11is the European Union. We share a lot of borders with them.
26:14And that's where the bottom hurts.
26:17And that's where, in any case, their efforts
26:20of extraterritorialization of borders are concentrated.
26:24But on the other hand, the continent is trying,
26:27despite the structural asymmetry I mentioned at the beginning,
26:30whether it is financial or in terms of human resources,
26:33there is a clear perspective that is developed
26:36by the African countries. We have the example of Morocco,
26:39which has always refused to open its detention centers
26:42on its territory. And it is that they refuse,
26:45and rightly so, to be all gendarmes
26:48of this continent, of this international organization.
26:52But we have other perspectives on the continent.
26:55We have, for example, Tunisia, which lets itself go
26:58to that, if I dare say, and which, more or less
27:01in a financial and economic need,
27:04accepts its migratory policies on its soil
27:07and accepts its financial envelopes.
27:10We recently remember the agreements signed
27:13by the Commission of the European Union
27:16with the Tunisian presidency, and which go against
27:20what the continent thinks and what African countries think
27:23on the issue.
27:25Thank you very much, Yacine Benforta, for answering
27:28our questions. I remind you that you are a specialist
27:31in migration and mobility at the Center for Global Studies
27:34at the Rabat International University.
27:42And thank you. This is the end of this newscast.
27:49For more information, visit www.nasa.gov
27:52NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
27:54California Institute of Technology