He had been sleeping in a small room shackled by beams since the earthquake brought down half his ceiling. This was not the case for his neighbor Abderrazak, a tenant in the neighborhood for 60 years. Tourists gather in the old quarters of Marrakech on September 10, 2023, two days after a devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country. Many are convinced that someone is trying to make them leave in order to take over their homes, although it's not clear who this "someone" is – the government? Developers? According to Al Omrane, 28% of the mellah's residents are homeowners. He touched a wall, crumbling under his fingers, shouting "Is that renovation?" Like others, Abdessamad spoke of "corruption" and real estate predators. "Why did my house collapse and not this one?" he insisted, pointing to another house a few yards away whose facade showed no cracks whatsoever. He was convinced that the work, carried out over several years by the state-owned Al Omrane group at a cost of over 150 million dirhams (€13.8 million), was not done properly. "The king gave money for our houses to be rehabilitated and look at the result!" protested Abdessamad, who said he'd lived in the neighborhood for 40 years and whose home had partly collapsed. Residents blame the government's mellah renovation program, launched in 2015 by Mohammed VI, for weakening their homes. On Sunday, families in Derb Tabac were evacuating some of the furniture that survived the destruction of their homes, piling up mattresses and the remains of crockery and cutlery on the street.
On a small square, a four-story house was partially destroyed, killing two occupants: a woman in her 40s and a 4-year-old girl, according to local witnesses. In the mellah, the old Jewish quarter, several houses collapsed. While some of the international press described the city as "partly in ruins," the scars of the earthquake are confined to the medina, the historical district, away from the modern, busy Gueliz district, where buildings are still intact. According to an official count on Saturday, the provisional death toll stood at over 2,100, with just 13 in Marrakech. The contrast with the destruction caused on the outskirts of the city by the earthquake on Friday, September 8, was striking. It was almost as if nothing had happened. September is the start of high season in Morocco's leading tourist city, with peak visitor numbers. Two days after the magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the city and surrounding region, the terraces were packed, tourists were riding the city's signature green horse-drawn carriages and the major hotels were virtually fully booked. There was a strangely disconnected feel about Marrakech. Subscribers only Tourists walk near buildings damaged during a powerful earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco, on September 10, 2023.
Marrakech's high season is beginning, almost as if nothing had happened.īy Alexandre Aublanc ( Marrakech (Morocco) special correspondent) Published on September 11, 2023, at 1:35 am (Paris), updated on September 11, 2023, at 11:39 am The earthquake has left Morocco's tourist capital relatively unscathed compared to its region. In Marrakech, tourists pose for pictures in front of rubble from the earthquake
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