On Friday night, Morocco’s High Atlas mountains were hit by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake and tremors were felt in several areas across the country from Marrakech to Casablanca. Since then, the death toll has passed 2,800 people.
Peter Beaumont, senior reporter on the Guardian’s Global Development desk, tells Michael Safi about his time reporting in the villages of the High Atlas mountains. Peter meets the communities who have been left without support since the earthquake.
“Everything they’ve done, they’ve done for themselves,” he says. “They’ve dug out their survivors and they’ve dug out their dead.”
Ibtissam Bouseta was in Marrakech when the earthquake occurred. She works for the Moroccan biodiversity and livelihoods Association, who are helping with the relief effort. She tells Michael how difficult it is to reach some of the impacted communities, and why they are desperately in need of shelter and more support.
Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
Support The Guardian
The Guardian is editorially independent.
And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all.
But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.
