Lt. Anne-Claude Gouy
First published in
SFOR Informer#153, December 5, 2002

The mission of the Moroccan contingent of 350 soldiers based in Mostar is to guard Camp Europe and to protect several sensitive electronic warfare sites. Nevertheless, you can see them regularly, in their free time away from their regular duties, in poor villages and hamlets in the area. And what are they doing here? They are distributing food and supplies and providing medical assistance.

Vrapcici - An encouraging thing happened recently in Vrapcici, a village of almost 2,500 residents, 15 kilometres north from Mostar. On Thursday Nov 21, almost 100 people including men, women and children from the three ethnicities were gathered together. This was due to the presence of the Moroccan contingent. Moroccan soldiers came to Vrapcici to give out food and provide medical help, just as they do regularly. "We are not here just in order to keep the peace. We can also help the people. We can do more in addition to simply fulfilling the operational mandate of our mission," said Col. El-Houcine Benmimoun, contingent commander. That's the reason why the Moroccans very kindly perform regular CIMIC (Civil-Military Co-operation) and humanitarian activities.
Advice first
The first form of assistance is to provide free medical help. Once each week, a 10-man medical team goes into the area to hold a surgery. "The problem for us is that we can't provide a follow-up consultation after medical treatment. For this reason, we particularly concentrate on providing treatment for acute conditions. In addition, we also give a lot of advice on sanitation and diet in order to enable them to lead as healthy a life as possible. You know, people here are satisfied with the minimum living wage," said Capt. Abdelfottah Bahmouch, doctor. "The most appreciated man is the dentist," said Benmimoun. "One time, an old man came with just one tooth, but it was one too many: he asked the dentist to take it out for him!" added Maj. Abdellah Ben Grain, operations chief, with a smile.
"In the civilian 'ambulantia' (medical site), people can still be seen to show bad feelings towards those of other ethnic groups. But just look at what happens here: everybody comes for help together," said Bahmouch proudly.
This time there were almost 40 families. "I have never seen as many people as there are here today. The mayor did a very good job of making sure everyone knew we would be here and what our role would be. Actually, we have to finish early today because of Ramadan. But even if you have to work a little bit later, it doesn't matter to the soldiers as it's all for a good cause," Benmimoun said to his soldiers.
They rely on SFOR
All of the helpers are volunteers and the supplies that they give are all donations. The goods come from a Non Governmental Organisation but the food comes from their own food supplies. They make some 25kg parcels of non-perishable goods. "In one month, we collected 250 kg of food. Today we will distribute 30 parcels," said Benmimoun. The most positive thing is to see women from the three ethnicities talking about what they have received. And if you ask Benmimoun about the relaxation time of the Moroccan contingent, he will reply: "We take our rest only when everything is finished. This is a great way for us all to spend our free time. And above all, it allows us to provide a service that is greatly appreciated by the locals. But more than relying on our assistance, they rely on SFOR itself."

Related links:
Nations of SFOR: Morocco
Humanitarian Aid