The aftermath of an earthquake in Morocco and flooding in Libya has shown up the state of the two nations
Not one but two disasters have struck in recent days – the earthquake in Morocco and devastating flooding in Libya.
At least 2,900 people are known to have died in the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains a week ago, and the authorities say the death toll will rise.
Continue reading...Travel and tour operators are getting involved in the country’s relief effort, knowing how vital tourism is to its economy
“My family is safe,” our tour guide Sara Chakir said as we huddled in the streets outside Fez’s medina, waiting for aftershocks until the early hours. Morocco’s 6.8 magnitude earthquake had struck last Friday, 350 miles away in the Al Haouz region of the High Atlas mountains at just after 11pm. It was enough to send our riad swaying, but there was no apparent damage to people or place. It was only in the morning that the scale of destruction elsewhere was clear. Another tour guide, Hossain ait Mhand, said: “My family is fine, but others in their town are not so lucky – homes have been flattened.”
I was on my way to a conference in Marrakech, about 40 miles north of where the earthquake was centred, but detoured home. Those already in the city saw blood bank queues snaking around the streets after a government call out. Marrakech’s medina experienced damage, and 50 people were reported to have died there. Tourists trickled out of the city.
Continue reading...French president addresses Moroccans directly amid political rift between Rabat and Paris
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has attempted to soothe tensions with Morocco over the supply of humanitarian aid, after a deadly earthquake centred high in the Atlas mountains.
Search and rescue teams backed by the Moroccan military continued a frantic search to locate and airlift the wounded from remote mountainous villages in the Atlas mountains where the 6.8 magnitude quake struck last Friday. But as rescue efforts continued for a fifth day, the chances of finding survivors were fading.
Continue reading...Thousands of ordinary citizens are travelling from all over the country to bring aid to survivors of the earthquake
Morocco’s route nationale 10 was once a pretty road through the High Atlas mountains connecting Marrakech with Agadir on the Atlantic coast.
Winding through a series of steep-sided high valleys, it has now become one of the key aid routes to reach the communities closest to the epicentre of last week’s deadly earthquake that has now claimed 2,900 lives.
Continue reading...Outdoor event hosted by bride’s family meant no one was trapped when buildings collapsed
A wedding celebration saved all the people of a Moroccan village during Friday’s deadly earthquake, which destroyed their stone and mud-brick houses while they were enjoying traditional music in an outdoor courtyard.
The marriage of Habiba Ajdir, 22, and Mohammed Boudad, 30, an apple farmer, was due to take place at his village of Kettou on Saturday, but by custom the bride’s family held a party the night before the wedding.
Continue reading...Complicated rescue effort continues as questions remain about king and government’s response
Hope of finding earthquake survivors trapped under their homes in some of the remotest parts of the Atlas mountains in Morocco was fading rapidly as rescue efforts continued into their fourth day.
Search and rescue teams were still attempting to reach the smallest hamlets and villages in the mountainous region of Al Haouz, close to the epicentre of the 6.8-magnitude quake that struck on Friday night.
Continue reading...As scale of disaster become clearer, survivors in small mountain communities feel they have been abandoned
As the dirt roads leading to some of the areas worst hit in Friday’s earthquake in Morocco were gradually cleared, the full extent of the disaster was being revealed, including whole villages destroyed in Al Haouz province.
In the tiny hamlet of Tarouiste, in the Atlas mountain foothills above the town of Amizmiz, not one of a dozen houses was left standing. Only the village mosque had not been reduced to rubble.
Continue reading...Authorities accept help from some countries but other offers not yet taken up as search for survivors runs out of time
The death toll in the Moroccan earthquake has passed 2,600 people as a limited number of foreign aid and rescue teams joined an intensifying race against time to find any remaining survivors high in the Atlas mountains, where many villages remain inaccessible.
Moroccan authorities said they had “responded favourably” to offers of help from visiting search and rescue teams from Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, but they were yet to accept further offers of aid from other countries despite the urgent nature of the disaster – including from France and from Turkey, which experienced a deadly earthquake in February. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said it would help “with all means” if its offer was accepted.
Continue reading...France offers €5m to assist disaster relief efforts amid political rift between Rabat and Paris
France’s foreign minister has said it is up to Morocco whether to seek French aid in dealing with its deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, and France is ready to help if asked.
Catherine Colonna said France had pledged €5m (£4.3m) to aid organisations in the north African country, where at least 2,500 people are believed to have died and a further 2,400 have been injured, but it was for Morocco to decide who it officially asked for assistance.
Continue reading...Help has yet to arrive in the village of Moulay Brahim in the Atlas mountains where many homes have been reduced to rubble
In a narrow passage in the village of Moulay Brahim, in Morocco’s Atlas mountains, a house had spilled across the lane in a drift of sandy ruins. It was largely unrecognisable from what it once was, save for the unlikely survival of a solitary room left beached atop the rubble, the blue paint of its walls still visible.
Abderahim Imni, with his hand bandaged from where he was injured by falling masonry during Friday’s devastating earthquake, was directing the cleanup in the street where his home once stood.
Continue reading...Rabat has yet to issue appeal for international aid despite powerful quake killing more than 2,000 people
Several countries have offered aid and search support after the Moroccan earthquake, but most of the rescue operation in remote mountain areas was being led by local teams and Rabat has not yet issued a broad demand for international aid.
After a powerful earthquake late on Friday night killed more than 2,000 people, Moroccan authorities this weekend made bilateral contact with certain countries whom they authorised to send expert search and rescue teams. These included Tunisia, who sent 50 paramedics and personnel from a specialised unit, as well as search dogs, advanced thermal monitoring devices, a drone to detect victims under the rubble and a field hospital. Qatar also sent a rescue team and medical crews.
Continue reading...Villagers bury their dead while Red Cross warns recovery may take years and other countries offer aid
Rescuers in Morocco were trying to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings on Sunday as the country began three days of mourning for victims of a disaster that killed more than 2,000 people and left many more injured and homeless.
Friday’s 6.8-magnitude quake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, had an epicentre below a remote cluster of mountainous villages 45 miles south of Marrakech, and shook infrastructure as far away as the country’s northern coast.
Continue reading...The death toll in Morocco has so far reached 2,000. Here is a list of some of the other most destructive quakes
The earthquake that struck Morocco late on Friday has killed more than 2,000 people, a death toll that is expected to increase as rescuers are struggling to reach some rural and mountainous areas.
Below are listed some of the deadliest earthquakes of the past 25 years.
8 September 2023: Morocco. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake kills more than 2,000 people.
6 February 2023: Turkey and Syria. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills more than 21,600 people.
25 April 2015: Nepal. More than 8,800 people are killed by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
11 March 2011: Japan. A magnitude 9.0 quake off the northeast coast triggers a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.
12 January 2010: Haiti. More than 100,000 people are killed by a magnitude 7.0 quake. The government estimated a staggering 316,000 dead, but the scale of the destruction made an accurate count impossible.
12 May 2008: China. A magnitude 7.9 quake strikes eastern Sichuan, resulting in over 87,500 deaths.
27 May 2006: Indonesia. More than 5,700 people die when a magnitude 6.3 quake hits Java island.
8 October 2005: Kashmir. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake kills over 80,000 people in the region.
26 December 2004: Indonesia: A magnitude 9.1 quake triggers an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
26 December 2003: Iran. A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits the south-eastern part of the country, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
26 January 2001: India. A magnitude 7.6 quake strikes Gujarat, killing as many as 20,000 people.
17 August 1999: Turkey. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake hits Izmit, killing about 18,000 people.
Continue reading...Witnesses describe how panic spread across the country when powerful earthquake struck
Amid shock and devastation that jolted people in towns and cities for miles around the epicentre of a powerful earthquake in Morocco, people across the country described paralysing fear of further aftershocks and widespread confusion.
“For the first few seconds, you don’t know what’s happening. My wife called out to me and obviously we both jumped for our daughter. My wife picked up the baby and we ran outside but we weren’t sure what we were meant to do,” said Bode Shonibare, a British-Nigerian banker visiting his wife’s family in a northern district of Marrakech, the major city closest to the epicentre.
Continue reading...Old city in Marrakech among areas hit in quake measuring at least 6.8 that centred on the High Atlas mountains
A powerful earthquake in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains has killed at least 2,000 people, a death toll that is expected to rise as rescuers were struggling on Saturday to reach hard-hit remote areas.
The magnitude-6.8 quake is the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years.
Continue reading...Earthquake measuring at least 6.8 magnitude and centred in High Atlas mountains leaves more than 1,000 dead and 1,200 injured
The US Geological Survey’s Pager system, which provides preliminary assessments on the impact of earthquakes, has issued a red alert for economic losses, saying extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread.
Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response, according to the US government agency.
We felt a very violent tremor, and I realised it was an earthquake.
I could see buildings moving. We don’t necessarily have the reflexes for this type of situation.
Continue reading...Defence ministry releases its version of events five days after two dual French-Moroccan men were shot dead on entering Algerian waters
Algeria’s defence ministry has said its coastguard fired warning shots before firing directly at a man on a jetski who entered Algerian waters, in an incident that a survivor said left two dead.
The incident took place on Tuesday after five men strayed into Algerian waters on jetskis near the Moroccan coastal resort of Saïdia on Algeria’s border, according to Mohamed Kissi, who said he survived the shooting.
Continue reading...Mohamed Kissi says forces approached and began fatal shooting after group strayed into Algerian waters
A Moroccan man has described how Algerian coastguard forces drew level with him and a group of holidaymakers who had accidentally strayed into the nation’s waters on jetskis before opening fire.
Mohamed Kissi said the incident took place at sunset on Tuesday when the four men travelling on two jetskis got lost after taking a wrong turn off the beach resort of Saïdia on Morocco’s north-east tip. The group was almost out of fuel when they unknowingly crossed the border into Algeria.
Continue reading...At least one man dead after group on holiday in Morocco enter Algerian territory off beach resort of Saïdia
Algerian authorities are believed to have shot dead at least one Moroccan tourist after a group of holidaymakers accidentally strayed into Algerian waters on jetskis, one of the survivors told Moroccan media.
Mohamed Kissi said that the group of friends on jetskis had got lost off the coast and strayed into Algerian waters when his brother, Bilal Kissi, was shot dead; another man, Abdelali Merchouer, was missing, presumed dead. The men were reported to have French-Moroccan dual nationality.
Continue reading...Court’s sentence over posts denouncing country’s ties with Israel is ‘harsh and incomprehensible’, says lawyer
A Moroccan internet user has been sentenced to five years’ jail for criticising the king on Facebook over the country’s normalisation of ties with Israel, his lawyer has said.
Said Boukioud, 48, was jailed on Monday for posts denouncing the normalisation “in a way that could be interpreted as criticism of the king”, lawyer El Hassan Essouni said on Wednesday, adding that he had appealed.
Continue reading...