More than two thousand deaths (2012) this Saturday evening were the last counts of the number of victims of the 6.8 on the Richter scale earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday. With its epicenter about 70 km southeast of Marrakesh, the earthquake mainly affected the province of Al-Haouz, where more than half of the deaths counted by Moroccan authorities until this Saturday evening were recorded. The reports – which are constantly evolving – also indicated 2,059 injuries, with more than 1,200 in serious condition.
Two of the injured are Portuguese (an adult and a child, father and son), while the Portuguese Foreign Minister, João Gomes Cravinho, declared late in the afternoon in Lisbon that they are out of danger, although they need hospital. concern.
At the close of this edition, the Portuguese authorities were preparing to send an air force plane to Marrakech, on a rescue mission for Portuguese tourists who want to return to Portugal (75 people). In total there will be 300 Portuguese in Morocco. The earthquake, despite its enormous intensity, did not interrupt the normal flow of flights from Portugal to Morocco, according to a source from ANA (Airports and Air Navigation). He stressed to a company source, who spoke to Lusa, that the earthquake had “no impact on Moroccan airport structures,” and stated that flights to “Marrakesh, Fez and Casablanca, from TAP, Easyjet, Ryanair and Royal Air Maroc, are operating normally from Lisbon . or Porto”.
The International Red Cross warned that Morocco will need assistance in the coming “months or even years,” in addition to the needs of the first “critical 24 to 48 hours.” In a statement, the regional director for the Near East and North Africa of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said the organization is mobilizing to “support the Moroccan Red Crescent Society.” “It will not be a matter of one or two weeks, as our region saw earlier this year with the major earthquake in Turkey and Syria. We expect months, if not years, of a response,” Hossam Elsharkawi warned.
The Moroccan Red Crescent teams immediately took to the field to “assess the situation, support search and rescue operations and provide assistance to the affected population, in close cooperation with the IFRC and local authorities,” the statement stressed. The aid is multi-faceted: “first aid, psychological support and assistance in transporting the injured to hospitals”, but “the most affected areas are quite remote and mountainous, and therefore difficult to access”.
Three days of national mourning
Three days of mourning were declared during a meeting chaired by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI. The monarch issued instructions for “the rapid continuation of relief efforts on the ground”, for the immediate formation of an “interministerial committee responsible for drawing up an urgent plan for the rehabilitation and assistance in the reconstruction of destroyed buildings in the affected areas” and also for providing “support to people in greatest difficulties, especially orphans and vulnerable people”. He also ordered “immediate support for all people made homeless as a result of the earthquake, especially in the areas of housing, food and other basic needs”, and the opening of a special account at Finance and Al Maghrib Bank (the Central Bank) , to receive voluntary solidarity contributions from citizens and private and public authorities.
“It’s God’s Will”
The village of Moulay Brahim, in the High Atlas Mountains, was hardest hit by the earthquake. A report in the French press reported on the testimony of Lahcen Aït Tagaddirt, a man who lost his wife and four children. “I have lost everything,” says Lahcen, speaking at the health center in this small town, located more than an hour’s drive from the tourist city of Marrakech.
By the afternoon, rescuers had still not been able to remove the body of his wife and one of his children from the rubble of their home, which collapsed during the earthquake. The bodies of two of his children had already been removed. “All I want is to be away from the world and mourn my loss,” says the Moroccan – who only did not die because he was not at home at the time of the earthquake.
In addition to his immediate family, Lahcen suffered the loss of two nephews, ages three and six. “It is the will of God,” repeats this man, dressed in a traditional robe, as he laments the harshness of life in this mountainous region: “We have nothing here.” Residents of the municipality, which has about three thousand inhabitants, have already started digging graves on a hill.
“It is a terrible tragedy, we are shocked by this shame,” said Hasna, a resident who sits at the door of her house and cannot hide her shock. “Although my family is safe, the entire village is crying for their children. Many neighbors have lost relatives. It is an indescribable pain. I am still shaking…”
At the top of the town, Bouchra wipes her teary eyes as she watches some of her neighbors dig graves. “My cousin’s children died. I saw the damage from the earthquake live and I’m still shaking. It was as if a fireball had devoured everything in its path. Everyone here has lost someone in their family, both in the village and elsewhere in the region.”
Source: DN
