Damage to roads prevents residents from accessing medical care and basic aid
Several villages remain isolated this Sunday night in the area near the epicenter of the morocco earthquake due to the collapse of its roads, that hinders residents from accessing medical care and basic help.
This is the case, for example, of 17 mountain villages in the Imgdal region, about 77 kilometers south of Marrakech and about 50 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake. About twenty of its inhabitants had to cross a distance of 13 kilometers between the arid mountains walking to the main road, where this Sunday they gathered to report their situation near the town of Imidel, where the intersection that leads to their homes is.
These are villages such as Anamir, Tiguirst, Taghzut and Taurirt, which According to these neighbors, they are totally isolated. In this last town, a woman gave birth outdoors without the possibility of transferring her to a hospital, Omar Ait Said, from Taurirt, explained to EFE: “she gave birth in the street on top of a piece of plastic.”
Ait Said denounced that the inhabitants of isolated villages were unable to transport the injured of the earthquake to be treated by a doctor and cited the case of his father, who suffered head injuries but could not be taken to a health center.
He explained that four people died in Taurirt and They were rescued from under the rubble by their neighbors that they buried them later. His only demand, he added, is that the authorities open the road to allow residents to receive aid.
“Local officials who have to find a solution have closed their phones, but Before doing so, they promised to send us an excavator, but we keep waiting. “We are forgotten, it is as if we do not exist on the map and not as if we have not suffered damage or loss,” he added.
Next to the villagers, at the crossroads of the road, a van with blankets and food was waiting, which he could not continue on his way to his villages due to road interruption.
One of the villagers is Rachid Ait Mbarek, from Anamir where two hundred inhabitants live. He demanded that the authorities open the road and give them tents. “We carry the help that people bring us on our shoulders,” he said.
The main road that connects these villages with Marrakech was also cut off by stone collapses from the slopes. After thirteen hours of work, the Moroccan military managed to open it this Sunday, and help is already arriving in other badly affected towns such as Talat N’Yaaqoub where they are still removing bodies from the rubble.
The sections of this road are one-way and prevent fluid circulation. As EFE was able to verify, the road continues to suffer landslideswhich causes sporadic outages that affect the activity of medical and rescue teams.
Last Friday, Morocco suffered an earthquake that hit several provinces in the south of Morocco, causing until the last official count a few hours ago a balance of more than 2,000 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.