Morocco accepted aid from four nations – the UK, Spain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – after a powerful earthquake ripped through the country on 8 September 2023. International rescue teams arrived quickly to set up search operations at the base of the Atlas Mountains, where the epicentre of the quake was located. FRANCE 24’s team on the ground reports.
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With most of the damage caused by the earthquake located in remote villages high up in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, ongoing search and rescue missions are fraught with difficulty.
The journey to remote, earthquake-struck villages is long with traffic snarl-ups between rescuers, aid convoys and bulldozers shifting debris.
In the small village of Inerni, a sense of bitterness against government inaction can be perceived among survivors.
“If we’d had help from the state and qualified people, we could have saved so many more lives.” A young man told FRANCE 24.
“I worked for three days, day and night, we dug with our hands and followed the smell of the bodies,” he said.
Meanwhile almost nothing is left in the village of Imi N’Tala after a cliff collapsed, destroying entire families in its wake.
Even as efforts continue to recover the bodies of the dead, an even greater challenge awaits – rebuilding the lives of those who once called these ruins home.
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