Six months after the earthquake, Moroccan Atlas villagers are still camping in tents Earthquakes

ATLAS MOUNTAINS, Morocco – Abdellatif Haddad works in his truck in front of a cluster of tents where his entire village, Tagaddirt, is now forced to live, in the shadow of Morocco's High Atlas Mountains as the winter sun sets over the valley.

They have been living like this since a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the area six months ago in September, destroying their village located there, deep in the Ourika Valley.

Abdul Latif is accompanied by his five-year-old son Amir, who dances around his feet and helps as much as he hinders, while his 56-year-old father struggles with the old truck engine.

His family was lucky. Of the 3,000 who died that day, 76 were from Ourika, whose steep walls shade the city of Tagadirt.

Many of them are now buried in the winding cemetery overlooking the village, which is only connected to the nearest mountain road by a long, winding sand track, exposed to the winds and rain that batter the area during the winter.

Like anyone who lost their home that fall evening, Abdul Latif expects to be homeless for at least a year and a half. They say it's more likely.

A temporary mosque in Asni in the High Atlas Mountains on February 23, 2024 [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]
Angry and sick

The city of Tagadirt is not unique. Across the sprawling mountain range, villages, many of which can only be navigated by bike and donkey, continue to live their daily lives under the protection of nothing but wood and plastic, while their homes lie in ruins, rubble or empty and vulnerable.

“I get angry, but not just angry or sick,” Abdul Latif says, his calm voice clashing with the translated words. “Everyone here has gotten sick from the stress,” he says, pointing to the settlement of about 160 people. “It cannot continue.”

According to ReliefWeb, 500,000 people were displaced during those first few hours on September 8, 2023, and 60,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, many of which had been standing for years.

The government's compensation system has yet to make its presence felt, while young people, already torn between traditional life in the mountains and the opportunities offered by the city, are now grappling with conflicting motivations to stay and help or to leave and support needy families who have been left isolated and disturbed. Vulnerable during cold months.

At the beginning of the year, with the harsh winter approaching, Abdellatif and about 500 others attempted to walk over two days from the mountain to the regional capital, Marrakesh, to demand the intervention of the regional government.

But they found their way blocked by the authorities. Names were taken, villages were noted, and assurances of assistance were given.

Narrow mountain roads were completely buried under earthquake rubble, shown here on February 23, 2024 [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]

Abdul Latif is still waiting.

Under a committee established by the king in the aftermath of the earthquake, monthly payments of 2,500 dirhams ($250) were pledged to each family affected by the earthquake. For every family whose home was damaged or destroyed, up to 140,000 dirhams ($14,000) will be provided for rebuilding.

Moroccan government figures since the end of January indicate that about 57,600 families have received monthly payments, with more than 44,000 families receiving reconstruction aid.

Al Jazeera was unable to speak to any family to receive the latest reconstruction payment.

Abdellatif explains that it is not just about direct compensation. He points to the shadows of distant houses, clinging to the foot of a rounded hill. “If there's another earthquake, the whole hill will fall on those houses. What will they do?”

the future

Talk of “the next earthquake” is common among residents still reeling from the shock of the last earthquake.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake, roughly equivalent to 30 nuclear bombs that exploded over Hiroshima in 1945, was unprecedented in the region. Life that had continued unchanged for centuries was overturned.

The narrow, single-lane roads that were the lifeline of the area were buried under tons of dirt and rocks, making it impossible for rescuers to reach them.

Even after they were removed, traffic jams returned for miles with the entire mountain range turning into a sprawling traffic jam.

Yamna Laminitis from Esni stands in front of her destroyed home, on February 23, 2024 [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]

Many people in the mountains survived the earthquake and died while waiting for help.

Any confidence in the future, or in the land that had supported families and villages for generations, suddenly ceased.

“A lot of people have left for Marrakesh,” says Fatima Ait Yahia, 36, from Tagaddirt. “They are afraid of another earthquake.”

Offers of international aid quickly arrived as news of the disaster spread. Among those who rallied to Morocco's cause were the European Union, which pledged 1 million euros, and the International Monetary Fund, which gave the green light for a $1.3 billion loan shortly after the earthquake subsided. In addition, in Morocco, a bank account set up for disaster relief announced its total had exceeded $1 billion by the end of September.

There is little evidence of such money in the small market town of Asni.

Fifty-year-old Yamna Lamini had been living in a tent with five others from September until last week when strong winds destroyed even that makeshift home.

Now, family members have to make room inside a small square of tents they have gathered around a dirt and grassy courtyard.

Yamna leads the way from the camp, past the hastily assembled mosque on its edges, and continues to the ruins of her home, which the family of seven was renovating when the quake struck, reducing its walls and freshly plastered plaster to rubble.

Trucks remove rubble near the El Bour roundabout in the High Atlas Mountains, on February 23, 2024. [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]

“I never imagined we would live like we do now,” she says. “We were happy. We were building the future. Now we are afraid all the time,” she explains through a translator.

“We are afraid when it rains, we are afraid when the wind blows, we are afraid when the snow looks like snow, which can be up to one meter thick.” [3.2 feet]”.

According to Yamna, the government offered her 20,000 dirhams (about $2,000) to rebuild her house, with the promise of more in the future.

The rest of her family, like most of those living in the plastic clusters scattered on the slopes of the Atlas Mountain, received nothing.

“It's the government,” she says, tears choking her speech. “They don't know what to do.”

“The king sent a lot of aid after the earthquake, but… they haven't done anything since then. Everything has been destroyed.”

Al Jazeera has asked the Moroccan government to comment on the points raised in this article several times. They have not yet done so at press time.

In the absence of immediate help, many young men left the mountains to join the exodus of aspirants, abandoning their mountain villages and traveling to the cities to earn money to send to families left homeless and destitute by the earthquake.

Twenty-three-year-old Tayeb Ait Abdallah is unusual in doing the opposite.

Tayeb Ait Abdallah, 23 years old, from Mrigha, in the High Atlas Mountains, on February 23, 2024. [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]

“I left university in Marrakesh so I could take care of my family here,” he says from a crowded village outside the city of Marega.

“There was no money anyway,” he told a translator.

Al-Tayeb walks past a large tented bakery donated by an international NGO, where families can take turns baking bread. Power lines connect the tents, while outside are a set of well-arranged toilets.

In the shade of a tent, a woman weaves a traditional green and white rug on a loom.

It seems like no one is going anywhere.

In the background, trucks pass on the road connecting Mariga to Asni. Al-Tayeb says they carry the stones and rubble away. Nothing is being built.

In the mountain village of Moulay Brahim, whose main street was completely buried, rubble was removed.

However, beyond the paths that snake through the village, much of Moulay Brahim looks as it did immediately after the earthquake.

An old man, who gave his name as Abdul Sadiq, recalls that Al Jazeera filmed him shortly after the earthquake scrambling through the rubble.

“I was trying to imagine what would happen next,” he said weakly through a translator.

He pauses, surveys the village, its tents, and the piles of stones, dust, and rubble.

“No one can predict what the future will hold.”

Abdel Sadek, was photographed in Moulay Brahim in September and again in February [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]

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