A Liberian minister has been praised by many for standing up against a Moroccan airline that discriminated against its black passengers.
Local media Daynabreak reports that Air Maroc had cancelled a flight and rescheduled it to the next day.
The airline had both white and black passengers but decided to only secure accommodation for the whites.
Managers of the airline left the black passengers to their fate, not interested in where they will spend the night before the rescheduled flight the next day.
The black passengers were reportedly abandoned by the airline to sleep at the airport terminal in Casablanca. That infuriated the Liberian minister, Eugene Fahngon who chanced upon the incident.
He threatened legal action against the airline for its decision to discriminate against the black passengers and asked that these passengers are also compensated.
A video of Fahngon’s outburst was captured on video and has been circulating on social media.
Liberia’s Minister Eugene Fahngon engaging Air Maroc officials for discriminating.
A 9am scheduled flight was cancelled and rescheduled for 9pm the next day. U.S passengers were given hotel rooms whilst Liberians and other Africans were left to sleep on the floor at the terminal pic.twitter.com/JCcf9syjjQ
— Facts About Africa (@OnlyAfricaFacts) August 19, 2018
Applauds from Africans
The minister’s intervention which was rare has been lauded by many on social media.
Our leaders have to have these mindset to always stand up for the interest of their people.
Liberians must be proud of having such— M U Z H A ?? (@muzhakucha) August 19, 2018
African countries & businesses treat their own people as 2nd citizens in their own countries… how do you expect foreigners to treat them any better? Arik & Dana will cancel your flight with no explanation and palliative measure… is it a foreign airline that’ll treat u better?
— ??????-????? (@EmekaChgz) August 19, 2018
Leadership! ?? “Africans” discriminating against “Africans”… common in our world now! If we don’t love each other, we’ll continue to “serve” others and never be served.
— Chrispin (@ChrispinAB) August 19, 2018
A Nigerian politician would have hustled for his own hotel room using his status and left his fellow citizens to sleep on the floor.
— Baamofin Lu’Jesha (@O_Nife) August 19, 2018
That’s one in a million govt official. A Kenyan minister would have just taken his hotel and leave the bill to the Kenyans sleeping on the floor.
— Musamali ❄ (@austinmusamali) August 19, 2018
Big shame to African leadership. Why is it often that they value American more than any human in the world? The minister would allow both to hotels either nullify all. Now isn’t that shows their superiority? isn’t word call shithole fitting him? I thought Weah would make changes
— Akoon LAAL (@AjouAkoon) August 19, 2018
Royal Air Maroc also known commonly as RAM, is the Moroccan national carrier. It is the largest airline in Morocco and owned by the government.
A representative for the airline has denied reports of discrimination against black passengers. The representative told TelQuel that “passengers whose transfer time is 12 hours or longer are entitled to a hotel room whatever their nationality”.
Morocco was recently re-admitted back into the African Union after decades of absence.
Source: Africafeeds.com
