A Year After Earthquake, Just 1,000 Moroccan Homes Rebuilt

A devastated village in Morocco's Atlas Mountains (AFP)
A devastated village in Morocco's Atlas Mountains (AFP)
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A Year After Earthquake, Just 1,000 Moroccan Homes Rebuilt

A devastated village in Morocco's Atlas Mountains (AFP)
A devastated village in Morocco's Atlas Mountains (AFP)

One year after a devastating earthquake struck Morocco’s Atlas mountains, just 1,000 homes have so far been rebuilt although more than 55,000 permits have been issued.

The 6.8-magnitude quake on September 8, 2023 shook the remote mountainous area south of the capital Rabat, killing nearly 3,000 people and destroying or damaging around 60,000 homes.

Following the catastrophe, an $11-billion aid program over five years was released for reconstruction and development in the six provinces affected.

Nearly a thousand families were praised for their success in completing the reconstruction and rehabilitation of their homes, according to a statement released last week by the cabinet presidency.

It said this came despite the issuance of 55,142 reconstruction permits and progress on reconstruction and rehabilitation projects for 49,632 damaged homes.

Nearly 58,000 people affected by the quake have received the first of four instalments of state aid of up to 140,000 dirhams ($14,500) but just 939 families have received the final payment.

Such grants are conditional on obtaining the necessary permits, technical studies and validation by a project manager of the various phases of construction.

The head of the government urged those affected to “speed up their work to be able to benefit” from the financial aid available.

In return, several activists, such as Mohamed Belhassen, criticized the government for its “dismal failure” of reconstruction efforts.

Belhassen, who lives in Amizmiz, some 60 kilometers from Marrakesh, told AFP, “A large number of victims are still living in tents or have been forced to leave their villages and rent elsewhere.”

In the Taroudant region some 60 kilometers from Agadir, “the situation hasn’t changed much,” said Siham Azeroual, who founded an NGO to help villagers in the North African country hit by the quake.

“Reconstruction is proceeding very slowly,” she said. Quake victims “are exhausted, and find themselves caught up in an administrative spiral.”

Meanwhile, the authorities say monthly grants to more than 63,800 affected families of 2,500 dirhams ($260) have been made.



Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
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Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP

The director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces in December is being held in "inhumane" conditions by Israel and subjected to "physical and psychological intimidation", his lawyer told AFP.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old paediatrician, rose to prominence last year by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.

On December 27, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility which they labelled a Hamas "terrorist centre", and arrested dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.

Abu Safiya's lawyer, Gheed Qassem, was able to visit the doctor on March 19 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

"He is suffering greatly, he is exhausted from the torture, the pressure and the humiliation he has endured to force him to confess to acts he did not commit," said Qassem who met an AFP correspondent in Nazareth.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the conditions in which Abu Safiya is being held.

- 'Beatings and torture' -

After initially spending two weeks in the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel's Negev desert, Abu Safiya was transferred to Ofer, where Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

In Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations "involving beatings, mistreatment and torture", Qassem said, before he was transferred to a cramped cell in Ofer for 25 days, where he was also subjected to questioning.

The Israeli authorities have designated the medic an "illegal combatant" for an "unlimited period of time", Qassem said, and his case has been designated confidential by the military, meaning Abu Safiya's defence cannot access the files.

She denounced what she said were restrictions imposed on legal visits, which have prevented lawyers from informing detainees about "the war, the date, the time or their geographic location".

Her meeting with Abu Safiya, which took place under tight surveillance, lasted for only 17 minutes, she said.

Adopted in 2002, Israel's law concerning "illegal combatants" permits the detention of suspected members of "hostile forces" outside of normal legal frameworks.

In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya's release, citing witness testimonies describing "the horrifying reality" in Israeli prisons, where Palestinian detainees are subjected to "systematic acts of torture and other mistreatment".

A social media campaign using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya has brought together healthcare organizations, celebrities and UN leaders.

That includes the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who demanded Abu Safiya's release in a post on X.

- 'Human duty' -

Qassem warned that her client's health was "very worrying".

"He is suffering from arterial tension, cardiac arrhythmia and vision problems," she said, adding "he has lost 20 kilos in two months and fractured four ribs during interrogations, without receiving proper medical care".

The doctor remains calm, she said, but "wonders what crime he has committed" to be subjected to "such inhumane conditions".

According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya's jailers are demanding that he confess to having operated on members of Hamas or Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but he has refused to do so and denies the accusations.

The doctor insists that he is just a paediatrician, "and everything he did was out of a moral, professional and human duty towards the patients and the wounded", Qassem said.

Since October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Gazans have been arrested by Israel, and some were subsequently released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.

In general, they are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organizfation" or of posing "a threat to Israel's security," the lawyer said.

Qassem said that a number of detainees are being held without charge or trial and that their lawyers often did not know where their clients were during the first months of the war.