In its most difficult hours, perhaps the worst in its most recent history, Morocco has lost its smile and joy. From Tangier to Marrakech, from the Rif to the Atlas, the wild and harsh Atlas, once again the redeemer of an entire people, Moroccans mourn in silence the more than 2,300 dead and several thousand injured that, according to the latest update from the Ministry of the Interior, were left behind by the scale 7 earthquake that shook the southwest of the country last Friday.
The figures are overwhelming. The breakdown says that the earthquake left 1,351 dead in Al Haouz province, 492 dead in Taroudant province, 201 dead in Chichaua province and 17 in Marrakech prefecture. The painful conviction of Moroccans is that the toll of deaths and injuries will continue to rise in the coming hours. Irremissibly. «The Moroccan State is overwhelmed. We need help. There are not enough means to try to rescue the trapped people with the speed that would be needed,” the director of the digital “Morocco World News” laments to LA RAZÓN.
The protagonists at this time, on Saturday afternoon, King Mohamed VI – faced with the doubts generated by his absences, the monarch has been able to quickly put himself in command – ordered the total mobilization of Moroccan troops, are the Royal Armed Forces, which They are working hard to try to rescue survivors in the area most affected by the earthquake, the province of Al Hauza, in the High Atlas.
If the village of Ighil, about 70 kilometers from Marrakech, was forever marked on maps as the epicenter of the earthquake on the earth’s surface, the truth is that Ground Zero is a vast mountainous region dotted with adobe and thatched villages. that blend in with the harsh terrain where more than 60,000 people survive daily. Its orography, mountains that exceed 4,000 meters in some points, and the lack of infrastructure, since there are no roads to reach many of these places, will make it impossible for the Armed Forces to arrive on time.
Because Many of these populations have been literally reduced to rubble. Erased from the maps. «Morocco would need hundreds of thousands of dollars and many years to be able to bring roads and basic services to those areas. It is unfathomable,” Rachid Bennani, a resident of the Moroccan capital originally from Demnate, in the Atlas Mountains, explains to this newspaper.
And from the insufficiency of the material means of the Moroccan authorities, to solidarity. Since Saturday there have been queues at blood transfusion centers of the large Moroccan cities, with the military setting an example, and brigades of volunteers, from lifeguards to translators, are organized in Marrakech, converted into a base camp of the infinite solidarity of Moroccans, to help the different expeditions of the Armed Forces through mountain routes. Yesterday mosques across the country celebrated the absentee prayer in memory of the thousands of dead.
And from national to international solidarity, because the world has turned its attention to Morocco in recent hours. And among the countries that have responded the quickest and most intensely to the tragedy in Morocco is Spain. Thus, a team from the Military Emergency Unit made up of at least 65 members of the Spanish armed forces was heading to the small town of Talat N’Yaacoub, one of the most affected by the earthquake, to try to help in the relief efforts. search and rescue of survivors. Firefighters and volunteers from the autonomous communities were on the way.
Far from Marrakech, in the capital, a taxi driver responds with measured and blunt words: “It is the will of God. A warning». The conversation ends there. There is nothing more to add. In the cafes, the other epicenter of Moroccan society, the daily agora of its cities and towns, nothing else is talked about and the televisions broadcast without interruption images of the destruction from the High Atlas before the attentive and sad gaze of the Moroccans. . After more than two years of economic hardship aggravated by the war in Ukraine and the drought, Moroccans are assimilating a new setback. Tourism fears a new blow after the two blank years caused by the coronavirus, and yesterday professionals in the sector recalled that there is not a single victim to regret among visitors.
«It is a misfortune like no other we have experienced in recent times, but History shows that the Moroccan people have emerged stronger from misfortune. We are a resilient people who show strength in need. Our State more than our Government, our people have taken note generation after generation of what has occurred. Let’s hope that this is the case now too,” the Moroccan digital director told this medium. Meanwhile, the residents of the medina of Marrakech, a few meters from the Jemaa El Fna and Koutoubia squares, with a Jewish neighborhood or “mellah”, especially damaged by the earthquake, were busy yesterday cleaning the alleys of rubble. . Small groups of young tourists tried to navigate the remains of bricks and cement with their suitcases, looking for the shortest and safest way to their “riads.” There is no desire for almost anything, but, in fits and starts, life makes its way in the medina.
