The air force has removed 102 Portuguese citizens from Morocco who requested help following Friday evening’s strong earthquake, the government said on Sunday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the 102 Portuguese (including the father and child who were injured after the earthquake) arrived this morning, on the Portuguese Air Force plane that had flown to the city of Marrakesh on Saturday night.
The withdrawal operation “took place in an orderly and peaceful manner despite the vicissitudes on the ground,” the ministry indicates, stressing that it will remain in contact with “the Portuguese who remain in the region most affected” by The earthquake. , which, according to the latest official report, caused 2,012 deaths and 2,059 injuries, of whom 1,404 were seriously ill.
Speaking to the TSF, the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, Paulo Cafôfo, gave a “positive assessment” of the operation and guaranteed that the government can carry out more operations to remove the Portuguese from Morocco.
Furthermore, according to Paulo Cafôfo, of the 125 people who initially expressed interest in returning to Portugal, “20 did not show up at the airport and three decided not to board to make room for other passengers”.
The diplomacy adds that Portugal continues to wait for the Moroccan authorities “to express themselves so that the support already announced by the government can be operationalized”, in particular “sending search and rescue teams or forensic medicine teams”.
The earthquake, whose epicenter was recorded in the town of Ighil, 63 kilometers southwest of the city of Marrakech, was felt in Portugal and Spain and reached a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, according to the National Institute of Geophysics of Marrakech. .
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.8.
The Kingdom of Morocco has declared three days of national mourning.
Source: DN
