Morocco is still recovering from the ‘shock’ he experienced last night when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake of magnitude shook the center of the country after eleven o’clock on Friday night. Currently, all efforts are focused on trying to rescue as many people as possible alive from the rubble.
According to the latest count from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, At least 2,012 people died and 2,059 were injured, 1,404 in critical condition. The majority of fatalities come from the southern region of the country, 60 kilometers from Marrakech, where the epicenter of the worst earthquake in the country’s recent history was recorded.
Fear of aftershocks
In the tourist Marrakesh, this Saturday they were still recovering from the scare. The walls of the medina shook strongly and some buildings collapsed, such as a small minaret of a mosque in Jmaa El Fna square. A few meters away, Nazib has a small stall with several animals for tourists to take photos. He explains that at first he didn’t know what was happening, “I started hearing noise everywhere and since I was afraid that a nearby building would collapse, I went to the center of the square”. In a few minutes, many of the residents filled this famous place, usually full of noise and tourists. For many it was the shelter where they spent the night on the street for fear of new aftershocks. “It is the first time that I experience something like this, my father the same & rdquor ;, he recounts.
Nazib explains that his house was a little affected and that it has cracks, as has happened in many buildings, especially the oldest ones in the medina. Although his mind was somewhere else, when he could he took his small motorcycle to travel the fifty kilometers to the Ourika region, where he was born and where his family still lives. He explains that everyone was fine, but that her grandparents’ house collapsed and his grandfather was trapped. He is currently in the hospital because his legs were left in the rubble. “The other towns were also destroyed, Many people have died because the houses are not resistant”, censures the young man.
Fifteen eternal seconds
Early in the afternoon, municipal workers have already begun to remove the rubble of the minaret that collapsed a few meters from where it was located. The city gradually regains its face and the terraces are full of tourists after a nightmarish night. “We slept on the sun loungers at the hotel pool,” explains a group of Catalan tourists who were caught by the earthquake when they just returned from dinner. “It took fifteen seconds, but it seemed like an eternity,” remarks one of them. It was just their first day of vacation and they were debating whether to continue in the country until Wednesday, when they have the return ticket. They also explain that they have received dozens of messages from friends and family after the news reached Spain.
Other tourists have decided that they want to return, “I want to go now”, explains a young Spanish woman who is walking through the streets of the city. Like most Moroccans, the fear of new aftershocks remains in the body, “Do you know if more earthquakes are going to occur?” asked a woman. Although for now no one has the answer. This Saturday a few low-intensity aftershocks have occurred which, in many cases, have not been felt. Last night’s earthquake hit very hard in this region, but it also caused fear and was felt in cities like Rabat, 300 kilometers away. Many neighbors also took to the streets, out of fear and to find out what had happened.
Global mobilization
The entire country has mobilized to assist the victims. On the highway towards Marrakech, military convoys accompanied by heavy machinery and excavators were moving towards the epicenter. Some of the small towns remain isolated between mountains and for this It is feared that the death toll could still rise. In the Marrakech hospital, many of them accumulate in the wards, at night, they were taken outside in case more earthquakes occurred, as can be seen in several videos. The authorities have also appealed to citizens to come to donate blood due to the lack of reserves.
The first images of the most affected towns, mountains of rubble and work against the clock to save lives have also begun to be disseminated on social networks and television. With each image and each update of the count of victims, the country assumes the tragedy that has struck this region of Marrakech. Many still remembered the Al Hoceima earthquake of 2004 in which 630 died.
Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for the victims have also begun to leave from many parts of the country, and field hospitals have also been deployed on the ground. Solidarity and the offer of help has also crossed borders, many countries, such as Spain, which through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albareshas placed the Military Emergency Unit (UME) of Spain, as well as its aid agencies and its embassy at the “entire disposal of Morocco and its people, to try to alleviate this situation and save as many people as possible.” , or Algeria, which has opened its airspace for humanitarian flights, have offered themselves in the event that Morocco requests it.
Three days of mourning
While the country tries to recover from the wounds of the fatal earthquake, all eyes were on the Moroccan Royal House.
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An official reaction after the earthquake was expected throughout the day. king Mohammed VIwho suspended his vacations in Paris and urgently returned to Morocco, and this one already arrived at twilight on Saturday through a releasepublished by the Moroccan agency MAP, after a meeting chaired by the monarch in Rabat to announce “a three-day national mourningwith flags at half mast at all public buildings”.
Until that moment, the population had to assume the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior as its main institutional interlocutor during this tragedy.