Published
Video duration:
16 mins
After the earthquake which hit the High Atlas massif, causing immense damage and numerous deaths and injuries, a “Special Envoy” team went to the site. Amidst the remains of their destroyed villages, survivors try to find the bodies of their loved ones to bury them with dignity…
On the night of Friday September 8 to Saturday September 9, a powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.9 devastated part of Morocco. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the province of al-Haouz, about 70 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, at the level of the High Atlas massif, a mountainous rural area. It was followed by a 4.9 aftershock.
This earthquake, the most violent in 120 years, sowed panic and caused significant damage, transforming certain villages into fields of ruins. Throughout the region, we can see the after-effects: houses on the ground or cracked, liable to collapse at any moment, survivors who have lost everything, sometimes refugees in makeshift tents… For “Special Envoy”, Anaïs Bard and Violaine Germot-Gaud were there.
Excavations continue, graves are dug
The town of Amizmiz, 20 kilometers from the epicenter, is one of the only accessible ones for mountain villagers looking for a doctor. A tent was set up there to treat the wounded. With her 2-year-old son in her arms, Malika arrives from Imi N’Tala, her village crushed by a section of cliff weighing several thousand tons. She has to have a foot injury treated there. Her husband and her second 8-year-old son disappeared in the rubble of their house shattered by the rock.
Malika must then go back to her village to look for her identity papers and see if the bodies of her loved ones have been found. The “Special Envoy” team followed her to the High Atlas Mountains, where excavations continue to find the missing and where the dead are buried…
A report by Anaïs Bard, Violaine Vermot-Gaud and Emma Noël broadcast in “Special Envoy” on September 14, 2023.
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