Death toll from the Morocco earthquake surges above 2900

GOOBJOOG NEWS | RABAT: The death toll from the 6.8 – magnitude earthquake that shook the Atlas Mountains Southwest of Morocco last Friday has risen to 2900 according to emergency response teams.

More than 5,500 people have reported injuries, as many survivors complain of a lack of aid from Morocco’s government.

“The villages of the valley have been forgotten, we need any kind of help. We need tents,” an affected resident told journalists saying he has been camping on the roadside with others who escaped.

“The authorities are focusing on the bigger communities and not the remote villages that are worst affected, there are some villages that still have the dead buried under the rubble,” another affected resident added.

However, government spokesman Mustapha Baitas on Monday disputed the accusations of inaction.

“From the first seconds this devastating earthquake occurred, and in following the instructions of His Royal Majesty, all civil and military authorities and medical staff, military and civil, have worked on the swift and effective intervention to rescue the victims and recover the bodies of the martyrs,” he said.

Rescue teams, including some brought in from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and Spain, have built tent camps and have begun to deliver food and water where they can.

This earthquake is the North African nation’s worst in more than 60 years.