Previously home to at least 100 families, the quake left Tikht a tangle of timber, chunks of masonry as well as broken plates, shoes and the occasional intricately patterned rug.
“Life is finished here,” said Mohssin Aksum, 33, who had family in the settlement, where residents and their livestock were killed. “The village is dead.”
BLOOD DONATIONS
Citizens reported to hospitals in Marrakesh and elsewhere to donate blood for the injured. Among the donors were members of Morocco’s national football team.
Other volunteers organised food and essential goods to help quake victims, after complaints that authorities were slow to respond.
“Everyone must mobilise,” said one volunteer, Mohamed Belkaid, 65. “And that includes the authorities, but they seem to be absent.”
The education ministry announced that school classes were “suspended” in the worst-hit villages of Al-Haouz province, the quake epicentre.
Some parts of Marrakesh’s historic medina and its network of alleyways saw significant damage, with mounds of rubble and crumpled buildings in the World Heritage site.
Dozens of people continued to sleep outdoors overnight in the modern quarter of Marrakesh. Some stretched out on the median strip of Mohamed VI Avenue. Others lay at the foot of their parked cars.
The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva began its session on Monday with a minute’s silence for the quake victims.
“We are part of a global collectivity: Humanity,” said Gambia’s ambassador Muhammadu Kah, who proposed the tribute.
The quake was the deadliest in Morocco since a 1960 earthquake destroyed Agadir, killing at least 12,000 people.
