They’ve camped there since, sleeping in the open and too afraid of aftershocks to return to their Marrakech home, as the kingdom reckons with the social and economic toll of a disaster that’s left more than 2,000 people dead.
Morocco’s strongest quake in 120 years struck the High Atlas mountains late Friday, tearing across the poverty-stricken al-Haouz and Taroudant regions and flattening villages of mud-brick homes, while damaging the winding roads key to aid and rescue efforts. The World Health Organization says 300,000 people in Marrakech and beyond have been affected. A Red Crescent official warned the response would take “months, if not years.
For Youssef Barakat, who works at the Kasbah Angour hotel in the High Atlas, the quake felt “like the sky fell.” Several of the hotel’s 27 rooms will need major repairs, forcing them to shut for at least two weeks. This year, there were signs of improvement. They included the country’s return to international bond markets in March after an absence of more than two years. It issued $2.5 billion of 5-year and 10.5-year notes. The former ended trading on Friday with a yield of 6.1%.
Morocco’s hosting of the events, the first on the African continent in half a century, was expected to bring thousands of high-spending visitors to Marrakech.