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.
With the first international search and rescue teams finally deploying to the worst-affected areas on Monday, after a disaster that has claimed at least 2,800 lives, it was clear that the window to find anyone alive beneath the rubble was rapidly closing. As relief efforts stepped up a gear, the Guardian visited a series of mountain villages that had been almost entirely destroyed, where residents said they felt they had been abandoned.
In Tarouiste, people described how they had been left to carry the dead bodies of six neighbours down the mountain where they were met by private cars, as no ambulances or other government aid had yet reached them.
“No one has come to help us,” said Hassan al-Mati, whose mother was one of those who died, with frustration in his voice. “We need trucks to come to help us move the dead animals buried in the rubble. We need tents and food. We feel like we have been abandoned. » | Peter Beaumont in Tafeghaghte | Monday, September 11, 2023
