Mohamed VI underwent surgery this Sunday after suffering trauma to his left shoulder, which caused a humerus fracture, while playing sports, according to a statement from the Royal Palace Cabinet. The King of Morocco has undergone a surgical procedure in the clinic of his official residence that will require him to rest, with the affected area immobilized, for 45 days. He will then have to go through a period of rehabilitation, in accordance with the report issued by the monarch’s personal doctor and three traumatologists from the Mohamed VI Military Hospital in Rabat. The ruler of the Alawite dynasty had planned to undertake an official trip to Qatar, starting next week, which he has been forced to suspend.
Last month, Mohamed VI was photographed walking, dressed in casual clothes, with his two children through the streets of Paris, where he has been spending an autumn holiday since the beginning of the month. The images, taken outside a cafe in the French capital, have circulated widely on social networks in Morocco, where the public presence of the king is the key that closes the State vault. In the last two years he has become visibly thinner. In 2018 and 2020 he underwent cardiac surgery.
With no company other than his usual bodyguards, the sovereign was photographed in the French capital along with his daughter, Lala (title of the Moroccan princesses) Khadija, 17, and Mulay (prince) Hassan. At the end of October, Mohamed VI went to the Rabat airport runway, leaning on a cane, to welcome French President Emmanuel Macron. Sources from the Royal Palace then attributed the orthopedic support to the fact that the monarch had suffered “a muscle contracture on the right side due to sciatica.” In images distributed a few days before, after the inauguration of new ministers of the Moroccan Government, he showed obvious symptoms of physical deterioration, with his body and head tilted to the left.
The king of Morocco has reduced his public activity after the pandemic, but has maintained the tradition of being seen at religious celebrations, such as the festival of the sacrifice or the lamb, in June, and secular celebrations, such as the festival of the throne, in July, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of his coming to power. However, he was hardly seen during his holidays on the beaches near Tetouan, which this summer did not extend to Al Hoceima (also on the northern coast of the Maghreb country), as was usual in mid-August.
To mark the traditional beginning of the session, on October 11 he gave a speech before Parliament in which he praised the “clear support” of France and its president for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Western Sahara conflict, and He also thanked the “friendly country Spain” for its support on the issue of the former Spanish colony. A week later, the king presided over a Council of Ministers in which the public budget project for 2025 was defined and dozens of new senior officials were appointed. And five days later, he was photographed in the royal palace with the newly remodeled Government in full, in a gesture that seemed to show that he is still at the helm of the executive power. The debate over Mohamed VI’s public presence was revived after he spent more than six months abroad in 2022 (in Gabon, the Seychelles and France) and another three months in the same countries in 2023.
