Morocco earthquake: Unbearable pain in village where people have disappeared under rubble
Up here, in a remote mountain village, a scene of unbearable pain.
A man with sunken, exhausted eyes, walks through the rubble and destruction following the earthquake in Morocco, cradling his small dead son, wrapped in a red blanket.
He walks towards an area of wasteland just to the side of the road, which is already full of freshly dug mounds and rudimentary markers.
A grave is being dug for the boy. It is not quite finished. He waits, holding his child.
CCTV shows moment earthquake struck – latest updates
A father buries his son in the village of Imi N’Tala
The man passes the body to someone else – a friend, maybe a relative. They are all men. And then the man with the spade indicates he is finished digging.
The body is lowered in and then, with barely a moment for reflection, the grave is refilled with the baked earth and stones that had been dug out moments earlier.
There is no ceremony. There is no time.
The group realise they have no way to mark the grave, and so the father walks over to the destruction all around and takes a broken piece of breeze block.
He lays it down on top, then walks away. Moments after burying his son, he walks to the village and joins a group of volunteers, digging through the rubble.
The scene of destruction in Imi N’Tala in Morocco
This pitiful scene is almost the first thing we see when we arrive at Imi N’Tala, a village that is hard to reach and impossible to forget.
You have to drive along a winding mountain track to get here, and then walk along roads that turn into paths, and then into long stretches of rubble.
We meet Ibrahim, who lived near the start of the village. He tells us he was at home watching television when he felt a vibration, then heard the noise getting louder and then heard a boom that sounded like an explosion. He’s in tears, but wants to carry on talking.
Ibrahim breaks down in tears following the devastating earthquake
He says he survived because he jumped out of a window in his living room. The power went out, and the village was plunged into total darkness. He heard screams but couldn’t make his torch work. It took Ibrahim three hours to find a battery, which he pulls from his pocket.
“I tried to help, I tried to do something,” Ibrahim says. “But I couldn’t. It was impossible.”
He estimates that 70 of his friends in the village are dead, along with his stepmother. As he finishes talking, he leans forward and hugs me as hard as he can. It is a long, desperate embrace.
‘There is always hope’
As we walk further, the devastation gets even worse.
British search and rescue workers, who arrived in the early hours, have come here to do whatever they can, bringing specialist equipment, many decades of experience and four dogs who are trained to find people who are still alive. So far, the dogs have detected no signs of life.
“There is always hope,” says Jim Chaston, who is leading the team here. He has been working in natural disasters for more than 20 years.
“We have to be a bit detached to do our jobs,” he tells me. “But of course, we shed a tear when we have to tell people bad news. We have to be strong because that’s what these people expect of us.”
His team goes further down the path, now so strewn with rocks that it feels like we’re clambering rather than walking. The site that greets us is horrendous – a great slice of the mountain cliff has been shaken free and has simply slid into the village, obliterating everything in its path.
There’s nothing left here. The people, homes, the road, everything – it’s all been destroyed. Rescue teams are looking for survivors but with little expectation. This feels much more like a recovery operation than a rescue.
At least they have support. On the other side of the valley, we can see people waving at us, shouting. They have been cut off – roads blocked and no aid getting through. And they, of course, are dealing with their own desperate problems.
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By contrast, there are hundreds of people in Imi N’Tala – volunteers delivering aid, rescue workers, relatives and some survivors. The place fizzes with noise and energy – some people determined to help; others wailing in grief. Some doing both.
And then there are those who simply wander, overwhelmed, terrified and bewildered. Who knows how any of us would respond when confronted by such horror?
Because Imi N’Tala is a village haunted by sudden, awful change – the homes that have gone, the lives that have been wrecked and the people who have disappeared under the rubble. It is a village that has been torn apart.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says two Chinese citizens have been captured while fighting in eastern Ukraine.
He said his forces had fought six Chinese soldiers and two of them had been taken prisoner. He added he had ordered officials to obtain an explanation from Beijing.
“We have information that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier’s units than just two. We are now finding out all the facts,” he added.
As it happened: Zelenskyy demands reaction from US
China is an ally of Russia and has been accused of helping its war in Ukraine, though Beijing has repeatedly denied allegations that it has supplied Kremlin forces with weapons.
“Russia’s involvement of China in this war in Europe, directly or indirectly, is a clear signal that Putin is going to do anything but end the war,” Mr Zelenskyy said. “He is looking for ways to continue the war.”
Mr Zelenskyy described China as having joined Russia’s war against Ukraine and said he expected the US to react.
There was no immediate comment from China.
How many Chinese are actually fighting for Russia?
Were they volunteers – or mercenaries – who had signed up to fight in the Russian army on their own?
Alternatively, does the Chinese government sanction their involvement – or even encourage it? That would make the situation far more serious.
The capture of these Chinese nationals in Donetsk begs another question – how many Chinese are actually fighting for Russia? In his written post on social media platform Telegram, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “there are many more Chinese citizens” other than these two.
Still, the Ukrainian president works hard to suggest the Chinese, officially at least, are blameless.
“Russia’s involvement of China in this war… is a clear signal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to do anything but end the war,” he writes on Telegram.
This is a generous interpretation of China’s approach to the conflict, which is quite openly contradictory.
Fighters of various nationalities have joined Russia’s army during the war, often in return for promises of large sums of money. This does not represent official interventions by their home countries.
North Korea has also sent thousands of its troops to support Russia.
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‘This could be very, very embarrassing for China’
After Mr Zelenskyy’s announcement, the Ukrainian foreign minister said he had summoned China’s diplomat for an explanation, saying on social media the presence of Chinese citizens in Russia puts Beijing’s stance for peace into question.
Read more from Sky News:
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Ukraine in Belgorod, almost out of Kursk
Last night, Mr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian forces are active in Russia’s Belgorod region.
He described the actions as “just”, adding: “war must return to where it came from”.
Meanwhile, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said Russian forces are on the verge of reclaiming Kursk, months after Ukraine’s surprise incursion.
He claimed Russian forces had seized the settlement of Guyevo. Russian state news agency TASS said only two more settlements are left to recapture – Gornal and Oleshnya – to retake the entire region.
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What we learn from video of captured Chinese national in Ukraine – and the serious questions it raises
In a carefully written post on social media platform Telegram, Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russian army of deploying Chinese citizens on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
What about the proof? Well, the Ukrainian president says his security services captured two people from China in the Donetsk region – along with identity documents, personal data and their bank cards.
Follow latest: Zelenskyy demands reaction from US
A video of a man in military fatigues who had been captured by Ukraine was pinned to the bottom of the statement.
We get snippets of a conversation where the alleged combatant seems to be talking about the events that led to his capture.
“When we arrived at the place… and then my commander.” The man gestures at the floor and ceiling, making shooting noises. “I was also injured.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy uploaded a video appearing to show a Chinese citizen in military uniform in Ukrainian custody
These details will make it difficult for the Chinese government to deny the incident out of hand, although they are highly unlikely to supply additional information.
Important details like, who are they? What function(s) do they fulfil in Ukraine’s occupied territories?
Were they volunteers – or mercenaries – who had signed up to fight in the Russian army on their own?
Alternatively, does the Chinese government sanction their involvement – or even encourage it?
That would make the situation far more serious.
Read more:
Zelenskyy makes dig at US over response to Russian attack
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The capture of these Chinese nationals in Donetsk begs another question – how many Chinese are actually fighting for Russia? In his post, Mr Zelenskyy said “there are many more Chinese citizens” other than these two.
Still, the Ukrainian president works hard to suggest the Chinese, officially at least, are blameless.
“Russia’s involvement of China in this war… is a clear signal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to do anything but end the war,” he writes on Telegram.
This is a generous interpretation of China’s approach to the conflict, which is quite openly contradictory.
On one hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping describes China as a neutral party to the conflict, while simultaneously offering Mr Putin long-term political and economic support.
In fact, he described their partnership as a “no limits” one in a phone call with Mr Putin on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Zelenskyy then, is making a point with this post – but he does not want to make the situation any worse.
The severity cannot be overstated, if an additional 50% tariffs are levied on all Chinese goods it will decimate trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Remember, 50% would sit on top of what is already on the table: 34% announced last week, 20% announced at the start of US President Donald Trump’s term, and some additional tariffs left over from his first term in office.
In total, it means all Chinese goods would face tariffs of over 100%, some as high as 120%.
It’s a price that makes any trade almost impossible.
China is really the only nation in the world at the moment that is choosing to take a stand.
While others are publicly making concessions and sending delegations to negotiate, China has clearly calculated that not being seen to be bullied is worth the cost that retaliation will bring.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
The real question, though, is if the US does indeed impose this extra 50% tomorrow, what could or would China do next?
It has said it will “fight to the end”, but what does that mean?
In reality, there are few good options.
There are some obvious measures that China will almost certainly enact.
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Further export controls on rare earth minerals (crucial for the development of high-tech products) are one example. China controls a huge proportion of the world’s supply, but the US would likely find workarounds in time.
Hiking tariffs on high-impact US products such as agricultural goods is another option, but there is only so far this could go.
The potentially more impactful options have significant drawbacks for Beijing.
It could, for instance, target high-profile American companies such as Apple and Tesla, but this isn’t ideal at a time when China is trying to attract more foreign investment, and some devaluation of the currency is possible, but it would also come with adverse effects.
Other options are more political and come with the risk of escalation beyond the economic arena.
In an opinion piece this morning, the editor of Xinhua, China’s state news agency, speculated that China could cease all cooperation with the US on the war against fentanyl.
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This has been a major political issue for Mr Trump, and it’s hard to see it would not constitute some sort of red line for him.
Other options touted include banning the import of American films, or perhaps calling for the Chinese public to boycott all American products.
Anything like this comes with a sense that the world’s two most powerful superpowers might be teetering on the edge of not just a total economic decoupling, but cultural separation too.
There is understandably serious nervousness about how that could spiral and the precedent it sets.
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