Mandatory Military Service Offers Promising Future For Moroccan Conscripts

Fez – Morocco’s Ministry of Interior official Abdessadek Benadi views mandatory military service to be an unprecedented opportunity for the country’s youth population to sharpen their skills and benefit from professional training, boosting their chances to get into the job market.

“The military service is a beneficial experience in the life of the citizen as it allows them to enrich their personal and professional life,” said Abdessadek Benadi, Secretary-General of the Directorate of Electoral Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, in an interview with Morocco’s state news agency (MAP).

The 2022 census procedure for mandatory military service began on December 13 and will remain in effect until February 10, 2022. As instructed by King Mohammed VI, the census is expected to include young people between the ages of 19 to 25 years old by May 2022, and who meet the conditions required by law to perform their military service.  Benadi highlighted that mandatory military service will allow conscripts to benefit from multidisciplinary professional training that can open up promising future prospects. They will even obtain professional diplomas by the end of the training period. 

Benadi further explained that this is an opportunity for young people, allowing them access to the major roles carried out by the Royal Armed Forces in the different military, health, and humanitarian fields, all at the national, continental, and international levels.

Young citizens, whose names are included in the list, will receive an order from the local administrative authorities required to fill out the census form on the website tajnid.ma within a period of 20 days. In the form, the concerned person must indicate their full name, their National Electronic Identity Card (CNIE) credentials, their parents’ first name, and their invitation number, the official explained.

Benadi also highlighted that individuals who are willing to volunteer for the service can fill out the digital form following the same instructions. 

The interior ministry official stated that some conscripts can benefit from temporary or definitive exemptions for certain reasons. These are mainly physical or medical incapacities that are duly proved by a medical certificate delivered by competent public health services. 

Called-up citizens are also exempted in case they were pursuing their studies or in charge of their families. To this aim, young citizens needing to benefit from such exemptions must file their application along with the required documentation within a period of 20 days from the census form completion. 

After more than a decade of absence, the idea of compulsory military re-emerged in Moroccan public discourse in 2019. Since then, much debate has arisen about the issue, with the public taking two opposing sides: being for or against compulsory conscription.  

Some opposers criticize the census, claiming that this process has been unequally applied throughout the country’s social classes, excluding the elite classes. 

Conversely, the supporters maintain that reintroducing mandatory military service would help in cementing young Moroccans’ attachment to their country by reacquainting them with values of patriotism and brotherhood.

Source: mwn