Morocco claims one of the highest vaccination rates in Africa, but in the disputed region of Western Sahara distrust in the government is causing efforts to immunise people against Covid-19 to stall.
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It takes Mohammed Hanzali 48 hours to get home to Laayoune, in the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Starting from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, he drives nearly 2,000km (1,243 miles) along Africa's north Atlantic coast. The 36-year-old Sahrawi – an ethnic group native to the western part of the Sahara desert – manoeuvres his truck full of tomatoes, onions, potatoes and mangos around potholes, onto ferries, across rivers, and through traffic jams at international borders.
But the most abundant obstacles of all are the checkpoints where Moroccan police officers demand to see proof that Hanzali is vaccinated against Covid-19.
He isn't.
"I'm afraid that if I get the vaccine, I might die," says Hanzali, citing unsubstantiated rumours he has heard. And so, each trip across the Sahara, he takes detours to avoid the police.
"If you are stopped by the police, you promise you will go for an appointment for the vaccine and they let you go," says Hanzali. "But I never go."
Last year Morocco – which has recorded more than 1.2 million cases of Covid-19, more than any other in Africa except for South Africa – boasted the highest vaccination rate on the continent. The government claims that 63% of Moroccans are vaccinated, with more than 55 million vaccine doses administered among its...
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