It was the worst earthquake in Morocco in decades: On Friday evening – more precisely: at 11:11 p.m. – the earth shook in the region around the High Atlas Mountains. Seismologists recorded a magnitude of 6.8. King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning. At least 2,000 people have died and hundreds of people were still missing on Sunday. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300,000 people in Marrakech and surrounding areas have been affected by the accident. Helping them represents a major challenge – both for local people and for international organizations. The most important questions and answers.
What is the situation in Morocco at the moment?
The earthquake caught the people in the country very unprepared, says Christof Johnen, head of international cooperation at the German Red Cross. “People were very shocked, or some still are. They were not mentally prepared for an earthquake.” Local help is now being organized “incredibly quickly”: those whose houses were spared from the disaster, says Johnen, are now taking in people without shelter. “A great level of human solidarity is emerging,” said the DRK expert. The Moroccan authorities are also trying to help.
Does help also come from abroad?
A special unit of the Spanish military flew into the North African country on Sunday morning. More than 50 soldiers had a transport machine of this type in Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, together with four search dogs A400 the Ministry of Defense writes on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The Moroccan government had previously sent a formal request for assistance to Spain.
Otherwise, there are only a few international organizations in Morocco so far – even though many countries have offered their help, including Germany, the USA, Turkey and Israel. The reason: So far there has been no international request for help from Morocco. “That’s why we can’t take action,” said a spokesman for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, the federal disaster protection organization. Since the THW is a federal agency, it needs a contract from the German government – and this cannot be done without Morocco’s consent.
Many aid organizations are still standing by in case they are still requested. However, the THW has sent a 50-person team that was stationed near Cologne/Bonn Airport back home for the time being. The organization announced this on Sunday afternoon. In principle, the helpers remained ready for action, explained THW President Sabine Lackner. They are also checking whether and how Morocco can be helped with the delivery of relief supplies.
The two aid organizations ISAR Germany and the Federal Association of Rescue Dogs had previously announced on Sunday that they no longer expected their available helpers to be deployed due to the lack of a request for help from Morocco.
Why has Morocco – apart from Spain – not yet requested any international aid?
The government in Rabat has not commented on this. A possible explanation: “Many countries have had bad experiences with international aid,” says DRK man Johnen. It always brings a burden for the country affected. Some countries sent aid that was not explicitly requested or needed. It is therefore conceivable that Morocco is currently relying on local aid workers who already know the region and can better assess the needs.
Nevertheless, the country could still need help from abroad in the coming days, say both the DRK expert Johnen and the welfare association Caritas International. The infrastructure in the region is difficult; there are no motorways or well-developed roads. The helpers are only making progress with difficulty in the sometimes remote mountainous regions, reports the Al-Arabiya news channel.
How exactly could aid organizations help on site?
In addition to rescuing the earthquake victims from the rubble, the most important thing in the coming days is the supply of water. In addition, sanitary facilities must also be built so that diarrheal diseases do not spread. The distribution of food and the construction of emergency shelters also need to be organized. “You will have to work with municipal institutions,” says DRK helper Johnen. An additional problem is the weather: in the mountainous earthquake region it can be very cold in autumn.
How long can people trapped in rubble survive?
Rescuing people buried from the rubble after an earthquake is always a race against time. DRK helper Johnen speaks of a window of a maximum of 72 hours, unless there is a serious injury, mind you. A lack of water is particularly dangerous for missing people.
Of course there are miracle rescues in which people are rescued after five days, as was the case in Turkey and Syria a few months ago. But these are absolute exceptions, emphasizes Johnen.