Moulay Brahim is a small Moroccan village at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. There Lahchen was sitting in the corner of a shop with a depressed mind. He lost his wife and four children in the terrible earthquake that struck last Friday. Moulay Brahim is an hour’s drive from the famous tourist destination of Marrakesh.
Lahchen lived with his family in this village. There is not a single person in the village who does not know about his heartbreak. He was so broken that he could not even speak normally. “I lost everything,” said the 40-year-old in a very low voice.
All but Lahchen’s family were at home when the 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit on Friday night. Their house completely collapsed in the earthquake. His wife and children were buried under the rubble. The bodies of the three dead girls were recovered, but the bodies of the wife and the only son could not be recovered until last Saturday afternoon local time.
Devastation Strikes Morocco: The Aftermath of the Catastrophic, Terrible Earthquake
Lahchen was saying, ‘What can I do now? I just want to leave this world now.’More than 2,000 people have been killed and 2,000 injured in the biggest earthquake in Morocco’s history, Bangladesh time yesterday afternoon. Many of the injured are in critical condition. Rescue operations are underway in Moulay Brahim, the epicenter of the terrible earthquake, in Al-Hawz province.
Like Lahchen, many others in the village have lost relatives. One of them is Hasna. Even after two days of the earthquake, this 40-year-old woman could not cope with grief. “It’s a terrible tragedy, we’re all really shocked by what happened,” he said. The whole village mourns for its inhabitants. Many of my neighbors have lost loved ones. This pain is not meant to be.’
Before the terrible earthquake, the village was home to about 3,000 people. As graves were being dug for the dead in the village, a woman named Bochara was watching the scene and wiping tears from her eyes with her hijab. Later he said, ‘One of my relatives’ grandchildren has died. I witnessed this devastation with my own eyes. I’m still shaking. It was like a ball of fire, which consumed everything in an instant.’Another villager named Ayat Tagadirt lost his two grandsons aged six and three. He said, ‘We have nothing left here.’
