2023-09-16 14:12:33
From our special envoy to Morocco,
An entire people is suffering from the earthquake even if some are more affected than others. In Tirknit, where 20 Minutes was Thursday, the human toll is very heavy, the village having lost 82 of its 400 inhabitants. On the heights of this town, a hamlet lost in the mountains, Adebdi, mourns the death of ten people, including four children. And this is not the only tragedy experienced by the survivors. The only track that connected Adebdi to the world is now almost impassable. Entire sections of the road were swept away by the tremors to the bottom of a deep ravine. What remains of the track is littered with scree, even imposing rocks, making it impossible for vehicles to pass through.
“Before the earthquake, trucks often came up here to supply residents, it’s impossible now,” laments Hamid, a Franco-Moroccan taxi driver. So help is delivered on foot, by moped or more often on the back of a mule. In an incessant ballet, the convoys of animals climb the dangerous road, loaded with what the humanitarian aid trucks have thrown aside because they were unable to go any further.
Mules at a hell of a pace on the edge of the precipice
With a team from the French NGO GSCF, we begin a hazardous journey to deliver tents and survival equipment. A 7km climb, under a blazing sun, which allows us to see the extent of the damage. “A storm on this road cracks everywhere and what’s left of it will end up falling,” said one of the firefighters. A concern that does not seem to be shared by the kids who lead their mules at breakneck speed to the edge of the precipice.
Access to this content has been blocked in order to respect your choice of consent
I ACCEPT
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
Shortly before arriving at the village, after three hours of walking, we came across the houses of Hamid’s uncles. Here, nine people lived in five houses grouped together in a sort of small subdivision. None are habitable anymore. “I have always known these houses and there is nothing left there,” notes the taxi driver. Sagging walls, collapsed roofs, gaping cracks. The son of one of his uncles had just finished his modern house, made of breeze blocks and concrete. “It held up better than the others, but the ground moved, we can no longer live there,” explains the young man.
Continuing the climb, an ageless man warns us that nothing is standing in Adebdi anymore, “walou”, he says before racing down the track. Indeed, when you enter the small town, the spectacle is frightening. “Here, there was a road,” explains a resident, pointing to a pile of rubble.
“It’s going to take months”
The army came a few days earlier to deliver tents. Insufficient and, in any case, unthinkable when winter arrives. Because while the landscape of these mountains is breathtaking, the climate is particularly harsh at the end of the year. “Here, we are at 1,500 meters, it often snows on the peaks, but also sometimes in the village,” promises another resident, a bandage on his head, the mark of the earthquake.
The GSCF men walked more than three hours to reach the village of Adebdi and deliver tents to residents who no longer have a roof over their heads. – Mikaël Libert
What worries the villagers most is how long it will take the government to repair the road. “We need to come and assess the damage, wherever the earth shook. It’s going to take months,” regrets Mohamed, the village teacher. In addition to supply difficulties, it is the economic crisis that the inhabitants of Adebdi fear. “They all make a living from growing argan, almonds, olives or carob peas,” confides Hamid. But the fields are devastated, the trees have fallen with the earthquake. For them, the future is very dark. »
#Adebdi #village #cut #world #house #longer #habitable