In the difficult-to-reach earthquake zones in Morocco, the emergency services are working on the verge of exhaustion in the desperate search for survivors. They have to fight their way through rubble and piles of rubble in extreme heat, sometimes with their bare hands. But the hope of finding people still alive on the fourth day after the severe earthquake on Friday evening is dwindling by the hour.
Dozens of villages have been destroyed the Moroccan news site reported Hespress. Not only do the residents have to recover and bury the dead, there is also a lack of food and water. The head of operations for a British aid group warned on the BBC of an increasing risk of illness if aid was further delayed. Meanwhile, the emergency services continued to try to penetrate remote mountain villages. Heavy equipment such as bulldozers had to be used to clear rubble from roads in the rugged terrain so that ambulances could get through after landslides.
Given this desperate situation in the disaster areas, the Moroccan government is under increasing pressure to accept more international aid. Germany also once again offered support to the North African country. So far, however, the government in Rabat has shown no interest in this. However, Morocco thanked us for the offer, said a spokesman for the Foreign Office.
So far, Morocco has only accepted aid from Spain, Britain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Officials in the country justified this by saying that, in their opinion, it would be too chaotic if teams from all over the world suddenly arrived in Morocco.
2,862 dead, 2,562 injured – and countless missing
According to the government, at least 2,862 deaths were counted by Monday evening and at least 2,562 other people were injured, many of them seriously. Numerous people are still missing. It is therefore feared that the number of deaths will continue to rise.
The authorities have now set up field hospitals near the epicenter to care for the injured, Justice Minister Abdel Latif Wehbe told the Arabic television channel Al-Arabiya on Monday. The exact number of deaths and damages cannot be clarified at the moment.
On Monday, military helicopters dropped aid packages over mountainous regions that were difficult to access. In addition to humanitarian aid, the population now primarily needs psychological support, explained the aid organization Care. “In addition to the enormous physical devastation, the emotional damage caused by the horror experienced and the fear endured is very serious,” said Hlima Razkaoui, Secretary General of Care Morocco, in a report.