We had to wait until Sunday September 17 to see the road leading to the epicenter of the earthquake reopened. More than a week after the Al Haouz earthquake, which has so far left nearly 3,000 dead and nearly 5,000 injured, the Ighil region, located nearly 200 km south of Marrakech, comes back to life.
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With our special correspondent returning from Ighil, Nadia Ben Mahfoudh
The road finally cleared of large stones that had fallen from the mountain peaks along it. Ighil is accessible again and is gradually coming back to life.
The engines of large trucks and other emergency vehicles are finally roaring. But in the first days, aid had to be delivered by other means.
“ We came on foot “, says Zakaria. He no longer lives in the village but the night of the earthquakehe did not hesitate to go there: “ It was dark, but what we saw all along the road to Ighil was terrifying: huge rocks falling on the douars and, we imagined, we wondered what we were going to find. I thought of my parents. Are they okay ? Are they still alive? ? »
Abdelrahman lives in one of the douars of Ighil. “ We were helped out by the mules who were able to make their way between the debris, he said. It was only afterwards that the soldiers unblocked the road and, since then, we have everything we need : vegetables, flour, gas bottles. »
Since then, Abderhaman has not returned to see his house. He and his wife live in a tent in the middle of the village. With the opening of the road, the many survivors of Ighil have seen their conditions improve, but with the approach of autumn nights, their next challenge will be that of equipping themselves to combat the cold and the rains.
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