catastrophe
Search for survivors in Morocco’s earthquake zones
Rescue workers are searching for survivors in the city of Ouirgane. photo
© Khaled Nasraoui/dpa
On the third day after the severe earthquake, the emergency services tried to get into mountain villages that were difficult to access. Hundreds are still missing. However, German aid organizations are not coming into the country.
In the hard-to-reach earthquake areas Morocco’s search for hundreds of missing people is in full swing. As people spent the third night in a row on the streets of Marrakech and other places fearing more aftershocks, soldiers with the support of foreign aid teams tried to reach remote mountain villages.
Bulldozers have to be used to clear landslides in the rugged terrain so that ambulances can get through, as the online newspaper “Morocco World News” reported. Survivors of the severe earthquake described the smell of corpses coming from the rubble of the houses.
Britain is in Morocco with 60 search and rescue experts and equipment as well as four search dogs to support the Moroccan-led operations, as British Ambassador Simon Martin announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
A special unit of the Spanish military with search dogs is also involved in the rescue operations. The mission “responds to the specific needs on the ground previously identified by Morocco and it is carried out in coordination with the Moroccan authorities,” the head of the Spanish rescue team told the Moroccan news agency MAP.
Many countries are not allowed to help
Although other countries, including Germany, have also offered help, Morocco initially only accepted support from four countries. The Interior Ministry said late on Sunday evening that the authorities had carried out a precise assessment of the needs on site. It was taken into account that a lack of coordination in such situations would lead to adverse results, reported the Moroccan news site Hespress. Therefore, they initially “responded to the offers of support from the friendly countries of Spain, Qatar, Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates,” the statement continued.
For the emergency services, it’s a race against time: experts give a guideline of 72 hours during which a person can survive at most without water. Meanwhile, Morocco’s Ministry of Education has suspended school classes in 42 villages in the hardest-hit regions. According to the ministry’s findings so far, seven teachers and 39 other people are among the fatalities. At least 530 educational institutions were damaged by the quake. According to official information to date, at least 2,122 people were killed across the country and at least 2,421 others were injured.
Government special relief fund
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake, the worst in Morocco in decades, struck late Friday evening. Since then, the North African country, where earthquakes are rare, has been hit by further aftershocks. The government in Morocco meanwhile announced a special fund for the needy population.
This was intended, among other things, to cover costs for securing damaged houses, the Hespress news site reported, citing a government spokesman. There was initially no information on the amount of the aid fund. It should be made up of funds from public institutions and voluntary contributions from the private sector, it said. In addition to local hospitals and ambulance services, more than 1,000 doctors and 1,500 nurses were mobilized to provide medical care for the more than 2,000 injured.