IMZOUREN, Morocco, 26 February 2004 — Angry survivors from Morocco’s minority Berber community accused the authorities of abandoning them yesterday, a day after an early morning earthquake rattled their northern region and killed over 600 people. Hundreds more were injured and thousands were left homeless.
As help began arriving from around the world, about 200 people marched along a roughhewn road in the hard-hit village of Imzouren, shouting, “People are dying, and nothing has been done for them!”
Others, protesting the slow relief operations, cried: “This is a shame! We are treated like slaves!”
The earthquake, which partially leveled a half-dozen villages near the Mediterranean city of Al Hoceima, triggered a wave of discontent over the variety of ills that dog this underdeveloped area of northern Morocco that is largely populated by Berbers. Rescuers used everything from pick axes to bare hands to try to retrieve victims of Tuesday’s earthquake from crumbled mud-brick homes and concrete apartments that gave way when the 6.5-magnitude temblor struck at 2:30 a.m., when most people were asleep.
Saudi Arabia has ordered emergency relief supplies for the quake victims. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the supplies will include tents and power generators. Earlier Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, contacted King Muhammad by telephone to convey his condolences on the deaths and destruction caused by the tremor.
The quake shook areas near the coastal city of Al Hoceima, between the Rif Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. The city was largely spared, but surrounding villages such as Imzouren were devastated.
More than 600 people were killed and over 300 were injured, the official MAP news agency reported. But the death toll was expected to rise further as rescuers make their way to hard-to-reach rural areas.
As many as 20,000 people need emergency housing, either because their homes were destroyed, or because they were too afraid to sleep indoors, said Dr. Mohamed Bourad of Muhammad V hospital in Al Hoceima, who is also president of the city’s local council.
Survivors were heading into another rainy, blustery night in makeshift tents fashioned from plastic sheeting. Military officers, helped by local residents, put up hundreds of tents in and around Al Hoceima.
Several aftershocks were felt following the quake, causing panic among residents. Two aftershocks, with magnitudes of 4.3 and 4.5, were felt yesterday around Al Hoceima, according to MAP. It quoted the geophysical laboratory of the National Scientific and Technical Research Center. One person died when a house collapsed following an aftershock.
