More Than 500 Killed in Powerful Morocco Quake

Morocco's earthquake aid effort fails to reach Richter scale
By Eileen Byrne Published: June 17 2004 5:00

The earthquakethat killed more than 600 people in the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco in February threw harsh light on the underdevelopment of an area notorious as the main supplier of illegal cannabis to Europe. Following King Moham-med's visit to the earthquake-hit zone last week, thousands of survivors were still camped out for a fourth month beside the rubble of their stone-built homes.

Since coming to the throne five years ago, the 40-year-old king has made clear that he seeks to include the Berber-speaking region, which is also source of significant illegal immigration into Europe, in his drive to modernise his kingdom. But engrained distrust of officialdom only worsened in the aftermath of the earthquake, as mismanagement and corruption took their toll on relief efforts.

In the chaotic days following the February 24 earthquake, residents of the Mediterranean resort of Al Hoceima, enraged by the diversion of emergency aid supplies to the black market, took relief distribution into their own hands as local councillors made themselves scarce.
The monarch's response was a centralisation of the relief effort under a palace-controlled foundation, and a pledge to follow through with personal supervision of reconstruction.

The Rif is a test case for the young king's ability to achieve both political modernisation and economic growth. "For decades past, the Rif has lacked the infrastructure to allow a real local economy and middle class to develop. Central government preferred to let people make money through drugs and contraband, and to deal with the region through corrupt, feudal figures," said Mohamed Lachkar, who heads Asasha, a non-governmental organisation.

Army helicopters descending on villages to drop supplies reminded some Riffians of how the current king's father, Hassan II, used aerial bombardment to put down a rebellion there in 1958-59. Bitter memories of that campaign, and of the imprisonment of republican-minded Riffians in the 1970s, are to be painfully explored by a truth commission appointed by the palace in January. In the isolated hamlets that dot the hills south of Al Hoceima, residents are pleasantly surprised at how much attention their impoverished region is suddenly getting but are reserving judgment until they see more results. At Zawiya Sidi Youssef, 20km south of the town, women were patting a clay-and-straw mix on to a reed frame to provide makeshift shade for the summer.

A woman in her 30s, who declined to be named, said the village, along with many others, was boycotting the government's reconstruction aid.
The family had no resources to top up the grant of 50,000 dirhams ($5,500, EUR4,600, £3,000), supplied half in money and half in materials, to replace a building that had housed three families. "The money they are offering is not enough," she said. "The only thing we can hope for is help from the king, not from local officials."

Aid experts in Al Hoceima are concerned that the 24 civil engineers assigned to advise some 5,000 families on rebuilding will prove insufficient. "There is a real risk that with the limited money and materials available, and inadequate advice on anti-seismic norms, we shall see do-it-yourself rebuilding" which could prove lethal in any future earthquake, said Mr Lachkar. Moroccan officials respond that reconstruction aid compares favourably with post-earthquake programmes across the world but acknowledge that some families will need extra help. "That is where the NGOs come in," said one interior ministry official.

With local feelings towards the monarchy still ambivalent, King Mohammed reaped some goodwill from his move in February to set up his court in a tent in Al Hoceima, even as the town was shaken by aftershocks from the 6.3 Richter earthquake. "It gave a boost to morale, when tens of thousands of people were camped out, worried about the possibility of an even stronger earthquake," recalled Samir El Mokaddam, a local journalist.
The hamlets that suffered most earthquake damage are in low-lying areas growing legal crops - straggly yields of wheat and barley harvested through June with hand-held sickles. Aid experts are hoping that the earthquake damage relief, and the attention being showered on the region by the king will translate into a broader strategy of economic development.

The drive to tie in the 2.68bn dirham emergency reconstruction programme with a regional regeneration blueprint laid down last year is being headed by the agency for the development of the northern region in Rabat, the capital. Officials there maintain that public spending on infrastructure, stimulating private investment in tourism, fisheries and new industries, will mean that cannabis cultivation by impoverished smallholders will wither away.

The area planted with cannabis could dwindle to 10,000 hectares, from an estimated 134,000 hectares at present, over the next 10 to 15 years, predicted Amal Mohamed Guedira, responsible for the agency's relations with funders. Over the past decade, however, the area planted with cannabis has actually expanded. King Mohammed inaugurated work last week on a coastal highway and urban housing, and opened a rural maternity clinic. Leaked details of a recent royal cabinet meeting suggest officials on the ground are under pressure to speed up rebuilding and to improve communications with a local population that for now has, for want of anything else, pinned many of its hopes on the monarchy.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373064204

The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up an information unit that will deal with offers of aide and messages of solidarity from abroad as well as answer questions about the earthquake and give an update on the situation there. It will also answer inquiries from Moroccans living abroad in general and those who have relatives there. Here are the MOFA info-unit #'s: Tel: 011-212-37-66-01-77 Fax: 011-212-37-66-01-12. 011-212-37-66-01-37. The Ministry of communication has also set up an information cell that will answer questions about the earthquake from media and journalistes : Tel: 011-212- 37-66-12-21-or 011-212-37-76-68-48. Fax: 011-212-37-76-08-28.

MAP
BBC
WA Post 
CNN
Google News

Wafin
Morocco USA
Other Moroccan news sources

Arrests over quake aid 'scam' By Pascale Harter BBC, Morocco Tens of thousands of people have been made homeless Two men in Morocco have appeared in court for allegedly trying to embezzle humanitarian supplies meant for thousands of earthquake victims. The regional co-ordinator of the Red Crescent in Al Hoceima is facing trial for attempting to steal a truck-load of blankets destined for survivors. MORE

Air Force brings aid, experts to Morocco by Tech. Sgt. Bob Purtiman U.S. Air Forces in Europe Public Affairs AL HOCEIMA, Morocco (AFPN) -- In the early hours of Feb. 24, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Al Hoceima Province in northern Morocco. Within the next few hours, two smaller aftershocks measuring 4.3 and 4.1 shook the remote region. Initial reports indicated more than 570 people were killed and 405 injured. On Feb. 28, the United States joined an international-relief effort when a C-130 Hercules assigned to the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, touched down at Nador Airport. The aircraft carried four pallets of critical medical supplies and a Humanitarian Assistance Survey Team from the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. MORE

Yahoo News Earthquake Kills More Than 560 in Morocco By ALI NAJI, Associated Press Writer AL HOCEIMA, Morocco - A powerful earthquake devastated an isolated, picturesque region of northern Morocco on Tuesday, killing more than 560 people as they slept, injuring hundreds more and laying ruin to villages that suffered for decades under government neglect. AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Morocco Earthquake Kills Hundreds 300 Feared Dead in Morocco Earthquake (AP Video) Rescuers with pick axes and sniffer dogs were searching for survivors trapped under the rubble of their fragile mud-and-stone homes, which crumbled easily in the 6.5-magnitude temblor. Victims were most likely women, children and the elderly because men in the region tend to emigrate to the Netherlands and Germany in search of work, said Mohammed Ziane, a former human rights minister. MORE

Quake flattens Moroccan villages Many houses were destroyed in Imzouren At least 450 people have died after a powerful earthquake rocked north-east Morocco early on Tuesday. The toll has risen as rescuers extended their search to reach the worst-hit areas in remote mountain villages, and another 250 people have been injured. Television pictures showed people digging through rubble with pick- axes. People flooded into the region's main city, the resort of Al Hoceima, where hospitals struggled to cope with the injured. Women and children The tremor struck at 0227 GMT, according to the US Geological Survey, which measured it as having a magnitude of 6.5. European agencies put it at 6.1 to 6.3. "The streets were full of women and children. The ambulances were filled with the injured," one resident told BBC News Online by telephone. In the village of Imzouren, 18 km (11 miles) south of Al Hoceima, the streets were littered with debris. In pictures: Morocco quake Your quake experiences "Many people are still trapped under the rubble; we have no equipment," Hassam Hmidouch, head of the town council, told Reuters television. "It's a total disaster; the world needs to help us." Another village, Ait Kamara, whose mud-brick buildings were not designed to withstand earthquakes, was reported to have been completely destroyed. Hossein Ben Ali, general manager of the Hotel General in Al Hoceima, told the BBC that the earthquake felt "twice as strong" as one that hit the region in 1994. Imad Marzaq, a civil servant in the city, said glasses fell and broke and pictures fell off the wall. "I panicked a bit, and I stayed in my bed. But the shaking didn't stop, so I went to shelter under a table in my room," he told BBC News Online. Al Hoceima - a predominantly Berber city of about 100,000 - seems to have escaped major damage, but injured people are being ferried in by trucks and donkey carts from outlying areas. "We have no idea how many dead there are," a spokeswoman at the city's main Mohammed V hospital told BBC News Online. "We are still receiving injured people and dead bodies." Ambulances can't cope - people are ferrying the injured in their cars, in private ambulances, in 4x4s Imad Marzaq, Al Hoceima resident Survivors speak of panic Josephine Fields, a Red Cross/Red Crescent official in Tunis, said the aid agency had sent 200 relief personnel to the region. She told the BBC's Newshour programme that local medical facilities were saturated and that the agency was considering flying field hospitals to the area. Mr Marzaq said wounded were being taken to Rabat because facilities in Al Hoceima were overwhelmed. "Ambulances can't cope, people are ferrying the injured in their cars, in private ambulances, in 4x4s," he said. Rescue A Moroccan rescue operation - including army and paramilitary police personnel with helicopters - has been sent to help survivors and to search for victims, Reuters said. Morocco's King Mohammed Vl has gone to the region. France is reported to be preparing to send emergency teams if necessary. The United Nations, Belgium, Spain and Germany have also offered assistance. The quake was felt as far away as Andalucia and Murcia in southern Spain, though no injuries or damage were reported there. Al Hoceima was near the epicentre of Morocco's last big earthquake, in 1990, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale. Tuesday's tremor comes nine months after a huge earthquake killed more than 2,000 people in neighbouring Algeria. Morocco's most deadly earthquake killed about 12,000 people in 1960.

Hundreds feared dead in Moroccan earthquake
More than 200 relief workers from the Moroccan Red Crescent are at the scene of a powerful earthquake that struck the Mediterranean coast of Morocco early on Tuesday morning (24 Febrary). Hundreds are feared dead in the quake.
Make an online donation to The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies