The inhabitants of Tassloumte no longer pray in their ancient mosque. On the night of 7-8 September 2023, its minaret cracked, as if struck by lightning, and part of its earthen walls collapsed. Every Friday, the men of this small douar (village) find themselves kneeling on huge carpets under a large canopy erected for the occasion.
“It is better than nothing, even if the heat is stifling”says Oussama Ait Oumghar, a young barber in his twenties. Next to the national road 7, which tourists from Marrakech take to reach the High Atlas, a sign has been put up: “Call to benefactors to rebuild the mosque”Generous people passing through Tassloumte by car can call the phone number below.
The earthquake, which killed nearly 3,000 people, lasted only a few seconds, but its traces are still everywhere. Tassloumte has fared well. Osama lives with his parents in a partially collapsed house, but there are still two rooms that can be used while they wait to rebuild.
“It’s not a life”
Elsewhere, it is a different story. Going deeper into the province of Al Haouz, the one most affected by the earthquake, you come across the desolate spectacle of entire villages flattened by the earthquake and razed neighbourhoods in towns or large cities, such as Amizmiz. Here and there, tents shelter victims who have lost everything or almost everything. In Asni, they sleep under perfectly aligned blue tarpaulins. In Talat N’Yaaqoub, conditions are more basic. The muqaddem, representative of the State, passes by from time to time. “We are cold, we are hot. It is not a life”an old woman shouts at him.
In Moulay Brahim, the zaouïa (“religious establishment”) that welcomed thousands of visitors no longer exists. The town has lost its main source of income. Parts of the town have been declared unbuildable or at risk, and clean-up operations are taking time until the authorities identify safe land. Nearby, makeshift huts made of plastic sheeting, wooden planks and reeds house around forty people, mostly elderly women.
“My husband lives in a tent a little higher up”One of them testifies, living alone in a prefabricated house, one of the few in the camp, offered by a private individual from Rabat but too small to accommodate the couple. Inside, the bare minimum: a mattress, blankets, a kettle, kitchen utensils. To wash, there are public toilets. To eat and dress, there is solidarity and emergency aid of 2,500 dirhams a month (about 230 euros) that more than 63,000 families have been officially receiving for a year. But the payments will stop next month.
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