Morocco earthquake: Those who survived the earthquake are now bracing for the cold and rain of winter
From a distance the town of Moulay Brahim looks pretty much abandoned.
Even when we arrived, I could only see a handful of people in small pockets sitting under tarpaulin sheets.
We walked through deserted streets, lined by destroyed houses, I felt like we were alone.
Morocco’s deadly earthquake – in pictures
But as we walked through a narrow alleyway with teetering buildings towering over us, we started to hear the murmur of people.
Turning the corner, we were greeted by the sight of hundreds of men, women, and children sitting in a makeshift camp, in a sort of large courtyard.
Zahera Benaddi says she has been well looked after since the quake
Children ran around while their mothers chatted, and the men began to unload a consignment of large tents that have been donated.
This is their life now – survivors – but a life in limbo, and worst of all, and they are all talking about it, they are sitting here knowing the rains of winter will begin and the temperature will plummet.
Although there is progress reaching the communities still cut off from the world by this earthquake, many still rely on relief supplies dropped off the backs of chinooks.
They will be rescued once the impassable mountain roads are cleared, but it will take time.
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‘Where are these people going to go?’
The problem for the relief effort is that it covers huge, remote areas.
And even in towns that have been reached they still have to fend for themselves and build cover, and they are doing it between buildings that are clearly unsafe and could collapse at any time.
The biggest concern for the earthquake survivors here is the weather.
They are homeless, and living on the street, in the rubble.
So far there is no clue how they will be looked after in the weeks and months ahead.
53-year-old Zahera Benaddi says they have been well looked after with food and shelter donations, but the weather is her absolute biggest concern.
“The problem is the cold and rain is coming,” she told me.
“Only God knows what will happen in the future, and how long we will sleep in the street, or if we can find someone to build us a room to stay out of the cold… The winter is coming, it will rain and there will be lots of water on the ground, that’s the problem.”
This village is built into the side of a mountain and floods in the rainy season are common.
Zahera worries when the water comes it will sweep through their tents, making them uninhabitable and probably causing damaged houses to collapse.
The whole town is unstable already.
Read more:
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Hasnaa Zahrite has the same fears. I met her as she washed her family’s clothes in a plastic bucket in the street.
She shows me her arms and hands, they are bruised and swollen.
Hasnaa Zahrite washes her family’s clothes in a plastic bucket in the street
Using her bare hands, Hasnaa dug through the rubble of her collapsed home to rescue her two children.
She saved their lives, but what now, she asks.
“I am anxious about the future because I have very small children, the house is gone, and now we find ourselves in the street – we don’t have anywhere to go, and now the cold and the winter is coming… we don’t have any clothes, nowhere to live, we are homeless, as you can see.”
This emergency is still in its early days of course, but you get the sense more problems are just around the corner.
There are of course no answers about the future right now because the present disaster continues.
So the thousands of survivors high in the Atlas Mountains simply have to wait, bedding down outside night after night.
This disaster is ongoing, it might even get worse.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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US-UK trade deal is ‘done’, Donald Trump says
Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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