This Sunday, Moroccans mourn the victims of the devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people, as rescue teams struggle to find survivors trapped in the rubble of destroyed villages.
The country’s strongest earthquake ever killed at least 2,012 people and injured more than 2,059, many seriously, according to the latest official data.
The earthquake that struck on Friday, with a magnitude of 6.8, struck 72 kilometers southwest of the tourist center of Marrakech, destroying entire villages in the countryside.
“I lost everything,” said Lahcen, a resident of the mountain village of Moulay Brahim, whose wife and four children died.
Rescue teams have recovered the bodies of Lahcen’s three daughters from the rubble of what was once his home, but have not yet found the remains of his wife and son.
“I can’t do anything now, I just want to get away from the world and mourn,” he said.
Troops and emergency services are struggling to reach mountain villages where victims are feared still trapped.
Al-Haouz province, where the quake’s epicenter is located, recorded the most deaths, 1,293, followed by Taroudant province, where authorities said 452 lives were lost.
Everyone lost family
Bouchra, another resident of Moulay Brahim, wiped her tears with her handkerchief as she watched the men dig graves for the victims.
“My cousin’s grandchildren died,” he said. “I saw the devastation of the earthquake and I am still shaking. It is like a fireball that swallowed everything in its path. Here everyone lost relatives, both in our village and elsewhere in the region,” he added.
Many residents of Marrakech’s usually busy tourist center spent a second night sleeping on the streets, huddled under blankets and among bags filled with their belongings.
Fatema Satir, a resident of Marrakech, admitted that many people were sleeping on the streets for fear that their houses would collapse. “Look where all these people sleep,” Satir said. “There is no help for us. Our homes have been destroyed, as has my daughter’s home. We are in a chaotic state,” he explained.
In the city’s historic Jemaa el-Fna square, about 20 people huddled on the ground, wrapped in blankets. Others were housed on the lawn of the town hall, whose 12th-century walls had partially collapsed.
“We spent the night outside the old town, in a safe place,” says Maria, a Spanish tourist.
Authorities declared three days of national mourning and several countries, including France, Israel, Italy, Spain and the United States, offered assistance.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said on Sunday that Washington was “ready to provide significant assistance”.
“We have search and rescue teams ready to intervene… We are also ready to make funds available at the right time,” he added. “The United States will support them every step of the way as they are ready to take advantage of what we have to offer.”
Meanwhile, Spain said it would send search and rescue teams and other assistance after receiving a formal request for help from Rabat.
Algeria, which has long had complicated relations with Morocco, has opened its airspace, which had been closed for two years, to flights carrying humanitarian aid and evacuating the injured.
Under the rubble
The Red Cross warned that repairing the damage could take years. “It will not be a matter of one or two weeks… We are counting on a response that will take months or even years,” Hossam Elsharkawi, director of the Red Cross for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement . .
The village of Tafeghaghte, 60 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake, with very few buildings left standing, according to an AFP team.
“Three of my grandchildren and their mother have died,” said 72-year-old Omar Benhanna. “They’re still under the rubble. It wasn’t that long ago we played together.”
Residents buried about 70 victims in the neighboring cemetery on Saturday, with screams and shouts punctuating the funeral rites.
In the late afternoon, television channels broadcast aerial footage showing entire villages of mud houses in the Al-Haouz region completely destroyed.
“Government authorities continue to be mobilized to speed up rescue operations and evacuate the injured,” the Interior Ministry said on Saturday evening.
The earthquake was also felt in the coastal cities of Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira, where many panicked residents rushed into the streets in the middle of the night.
The earthquake was the deadliest in Morocco since the 1960 earthquake that devastated Agadir and killed more than 12,000 people.
Source: DN
