Morocco mourns its dead this Sunday, September 10, after the violent earthquake which struck the country during the night from Friday to Saturday. Magnitude 7 according to the Moroccan Center for Scientific and Technical Research, and 6.8 according to the American Seismological Service, it is the most powerful measured in Morocco. It left at least 2,012 dead and 2,059 injured, including 1,404 in very serious condition, the Interior Ministry announced on Saturday evening in a latest official report, which is still likely to rise. The kingdom has declared a three-day national mourning, announced the royal cabinet, following a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI.
“We deplore the death of a French national in Agadir, following a heart attack during the earthquake,” said the Quai d’Orsay, which also identified “eight nationals” injured, with whom it said it was “in contact.” close contact in order to (ensure) their good care”.
The province of Al-Haouz, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, is the most bereaved with 1,293 deaths, followed by the province of Taroudant with 452 deaths. These are two mountainous rural areas in the heart of the High Atlas. According to the ministry, “public authorities are still mobilized to speed up rescue and evacuation operations for the injured.” Entire villages were wiped out by the earthquake. “I lost everything,” laments Lahcen, a resident of the village of Moulay Brahim, in the High Atlas, whose wife and four children were killed. “I can’t do anything about it now, I just want to get away from the world, to mourn,” he continues, prostrate in a corner.
On the heights of this village of some 3,000 inhabitants, Bouchra dries her tears with her scarf as she watches men dig graves to bury the deceased. “My cousin’s grandchildren are dead,” she said, before adding in a choked voice: “I saw the devastation of the earthquake live, I’m still trembling. It’s like a ball of fire that engulfed everything in its path”. “Everyone here has lost family, whether in our village or elsewhere in the region,” she continues.
Help and support from all sides
Several countries including Israel, France, Spain, Italy and the United States have offered their help. Even neighboring Algeria, with stormy relations with Morocco, has opened its airspace, closed for two years, to flights transporting humanitarian aid and the wounded.
The leaders of the 27 member countries of the European Union co-signed, on Saturday evening, a letter to the King of Morocco Mohammed VI in which they say they are “in full solidarity” with the Moroccan people after the deadly earthquake which plunged the kingdom into mourning. “As close friends and partners of Morocco, we are ready to help you in any way you deem useful,” they write in this letter joined by the heads of the EU institutions Charles Michel (Council European) and Ursula von der Leyen (Commission).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also expressed his condolences to the “brother” Moroccan people and offered “all forms of support to heal the wounds” of Morocco. Turkey was devastated in February by a very powerful earthquake which left more than 50,000 dead and millions displaced in the south-east of the country.
According to the International Red Cross, Morocco’s aid needs are immense. “It will not be a matter of a week or two like our region saw with the great earthquake in Turkey and Syria earlier this year. We are looking at months, if not years of response,” warned Hossam Elsharkawi, director for the Near East and North Africa of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in a statement.
The latter’s teams deployed immediately to the field to “assess the situation, support search and rescue operations and provide aid to affected populations in close coordination with the IFRC and local authorities”, underlines the press release. The aid is multiple: “first aid, psychological support and help in transporting the injured to hospitals” but “the most affected areas are quite remote and mountainous, therefore difficult to access”, he adds.
“The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical to saving lives. Search and rescue efforts will of course be the priority while ensuring that survivors are taken care of,” added Caroline Holt, global director of operations at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. “We know what to expect. We must treat the dead with dignity, bring drinking water to the population and ensure that disaster is not added to disaster: hygiene must really be maintained” , she added.
Unesco will help for the reconstruction
The village of Tafeghaghte, 60 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake, the epicenter of which was only around fifty kilometers away, according to an AFP team. Few of the buildings are still standing. In Marrakech, a tourist hotspot, the streets of Mellah, the historic Jewish quarter, are littered with debris. Dozens of people spent their second night outside, fearing that their damaged homes would collapse on them. The tremor was also felt in Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira, where many panicked residents took to the streets in the middle of the night, fearing the collapse of their homes.
UNESCO has already announced that it will help Morocco to inventory the damage caused to its heritage and prepare for its reconstruction, according to its director general. “A UNESCO mission visited the medina of Marrakech. Our organization will support the Moroccan authorities to inventory the damage in the areas of heritage and education, make the buildings safe and prepare for reconstruction,” said indicated Audrey Azoulay Saturday on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
She also affirmed her “support for the Moroccan people after this terrible earthquake which caused so many victims and damage”, while posting three photos of old buildings damaged by the recent disaster. This earthquake is the deadliest in Morocco since the one that destroyed Agadir, on the west coast of the country, on February 29, 1960. Nearly 15,000 people, or a third of the city’s population, died then.