KUALA LUMPUR: Houses were completely demolished, entire families were under the rubbles with no survivors, kids became orphans all of a sudden, and parents found themselves without pre-notice vilomah. That how things turned out to be, that tragic night of September 8th 2023, in Alhaouz region, the epicentre of the devastating earthquake, located near the famous touristic city of Marrakech in Morocco.
The grief was tremendous and the pain was beyond imagination; but the very next day, fear and anxiety gave way to a noteworthy solidarity which, by the way, Moroccans have always been familiar with and which they have always shown whenever needed.
It must be said that Moroccan citizens, inside as well as abroad, responded massively to the call of the heart, without even thinking of what the Government was supposed or planning to do, to comfort the victims in these moments of distress and pain.
While the rescue efforts were being undertaken vigorously and relentlessly to help the survivors and the injured, long queues, may be the longest ever in no war areas, were witnessed in all the cities for blood donation, and thousands of lorries and trucks full of medical and food supplies headed spontaneously towards the affected areas.
The most conspicuous manifestation of solidarity which people of my own generation must have witnessed is the convoy of more than 100 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid which departed from Laayoune, the capital of the Southern Saharan provinces, towards the devastated region. In 1975, when the Late King Hassan II organised the Green March through which Morocco recovered back its southern provinces, convoys departed from all Moroccan cities and towns towards that very region and its capital Laayoune, and now it is the other way round.
This overall incredible solidarity movement caused congestion on all the roads leading to the High Atlas regions where the Royal Gendarmerie people were deployed to organise the very dense traffic of humanitarian convoys and the incessant back and forth of ambulances transporting the injured to treatment centres.
The “Special Fund for the Management of the Effects of the Earthquake”, created in the aftermath of the tragedy, began to receive substantial contributions from King Mohammed VI, Moroccan citizens, private companies, and public organisations in addition to foreign contributors, to help the victims and be engaged in the reconstruction of the disaster-stricken regions.
The last working session chaired by HM the King was dedicated to the reconstruction and general upgrading programme for the regions hit by the earthquake. The approach is structured around four main points:
- relocating people, rebuilding houses and rehabilitating the infrastructure,
- upgrading regions,
- accelerating the absorption of social deficits, and
- encouraging economic activities and employment.
These efforts went in parallel with the great work done by the Royal Armed Forces whose task included a full range of activities: rescuing, building camps, setting up proximity field hospitals, providing medical care and psychological assistance, and preparing food for the population.
In this regard, I personally would like to pay tribute to these Royal Armed Forces because of their professionalism, dedication, perseverance and abnegation. I witnessed myself how a small group of them managed to build a field hospital, in 15 Hours (8H00-23H00) in Lebanon in August 2020 after the explosion that took place in Beirut Port. The following day, early in the morning, doctors were in their respective consultation rooms ready to receive the injured, the laboratory was operational, and the pharmacy was open etc.
The whole world will never forget that lady who went with her small kid to a group of youngsters who were collecting supplies for the affected areas, tears in her eyes and said ‘’I want to help but I have only this gold ring, please take it’’, or the poor old bicycle man who went to another group taking with him half a bag of flour (he kept half for his family and offered the second half to the affected people), or that old lady who walked with difficulty to another group to contribute with a bottle of 5 litres of oil.
It was thought that Moroccans’ traditions, customs and spirit of solidarity might have been affected given the evolution that has spared no spheres of life, the socioeconomic challenges and the easily creeping outside impacts; this earthquake has revealed that these traditions may appear to be out of place, but they do certainly impose themselves when the moment of truth comes. – BERNAMA
