Tinzert, Atlas Mountains, Morocco CNN —
Rajaa Acherhri was known as the math genius of the village. At six years old, she loved solving problems well above her grade level. His sister Sanaa also had big dreams. She wanted to be a doctor, her mother Fatema told CNN.
After dinner on Friday evening, the girls sat in their family home with their heads together. Rajaa is sleeping after a long day at school. Sanaa, 12, plays with her phone.
Suddenly the ground began to shake violently. Fatema was still cleaning up in the kitchen when her house began to collapse around her. She said she jumped toward her girls only to see them crushed by part of the blanket. Both disappeared immediately.
She buried her the next day along with 19 other people killed in Tinzert, a tiny mountain village in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
These are among the more than 2,900 people who died in the disaster, state broadcaster 2M said in the latest death toll, citing the Moroccan Interior Ministry.
The quake According to initial reports, around 100,000 children are said to be affected, UNICEF announced on Monday.
The maps and photos show the effects of the quake.
The earthquake turned Tinzert into a huge pile of rubble. The damage is so extensive that it is impossible to tell where one house begins and another ends. The houses here were old and built in the traditional way – made of mud and straw. They were not designed to withstand an earthquake; That was not necessary. There are no earthquakes in this area. There hasn’t been a situation this bad for more than 120 years.
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Fatema Acherhri lost her two daughters Rajaa and Sanaa in the earthquake that struck the Atlas Mountains in Morocco on September 8, 2023.
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Rajaa and Sanaa were among thousands of people who died in the disaster, the deadliest earthquake to hit Morocco in decades.
“It took 10 seconds for the whole village to disappear,” Hakim Idlhousein told CNN.
His house was split in half by the earthquake and looked like a partially collapsed dollhouse. The front is completely gone, while parts of the back are exposed, including a kitchen cupboard full of supplies that is somehow still standing while everything around it is in ruins.
On Monday afternoon, Idlhousein ate a simple meal with his parents and cousins. Some bread, oil, strong coffee with lots of sugar, a tray laid out on a flat piece of land outside where they have been spending their days and nights since the quake. Their house is destroyed and they are afraid of further aftershocks.
A group of neighbors came by, all hugging and kissing, exchanging comforting words and drinking coffee. With just 300 residents, Tinzert is so small that everyone here knows everyone by name. Everyone here has lost someone they loved.
The road to Tinzert is narrow and steep and large parts of the village are no longer accessible by car.
To get around, villagers climb through the rubble while children help carry supplies and hop from one large piece of rubble to the next.
After three days of this life, everyone knows their way around the ruins. The roads no longer exist, replaced by dangerous passages on the rubble.
Aid has been slow in coming and so far has consisted mainly of food and water brought into the mountains in private cars by volunteers from all over Morocco.
Many people are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated at the lack of government help. Several residents told CNN they had lost faith it would ever happen.
Tinzert is located in the mountainous province of Al Haouz, where villages like this are scattered across the hills. According to the Moroccan authorities, around 1,500 people died in the earthquake in this area alone.
A Moroccan government official told CNN on Monday that the destroyed mountain roads to villages like Tinzert are making it difficult to get aid to the hardest-hit regions.
The people there have no choice but to wait.
For 17-year-old AbdelHaq Edabdelah, the wait became unbearable. The pain in his shoulder was too intense to think clearly.
The young construction worker was injured when his house collapsed in the remote village of Ifghan. His neighbor Abdeltif Ait Bensoli told CNN that Edabdelah’s body was completely buried under rubble, with only his head sticking out.
The neighbors managed to pull him out, but his shoulder was twisted and injured. He was in a lot of pain and there was no one in the village who knew how to help him. No painkillers, no first aid.
He waited for two days for help to arrive and slept outside with the rest of the village. When no one came, his neighbors decided to take him to a doctor.
“The road is blocked with stones. You can’t get through by car, it’s impossible,” said Ait Bensoli.
Edabdelah lives with his elderly grandparents who were unable to accompany him, so it fell to Ait Bensoli to transport the young man to a hospital.
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Hakim Idlhousein stands near the rubble of his house in the village of Tinzert, Morocco, which was destroyed by the earthquake.
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Children make their way through the destroyed village of Tinzert.
Another neighbor drove them to the blocked section of road, where they got out and walked for about 20 minutes through the boulders and debris that covered the path.
After getting past that section, they managed to hitchhike to Asni, a town about two hours southwest of Marrakech, where a field hospital opened Monday morning.
When they got there, Edabdelah could barely speak. The tiring journey had left him in agony. He couldn’t move his arm, his face distorted with every movement.
Doctors in Asni immobilized Edabdelah’s shoulder and gave him strong painkillers. They told him he would be better in about two weeks, then discharged him and focused on the next in a long line of patients.
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A volunteer responds amid the rubble of destroyed homes in the Moroccan village of Douzrou on Tuesday, September 12.
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Photos found in the rubble of the village of Talat N’Yaaqoub, on September 12th.
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An injured earthquake survivor is taken to a hospital in Talat N’Yaaqoub on September 12.
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Rescuers dig through rubble in Imi N’Tala at night on September 12, searching for a 17-year-old.
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A doctor treats a patient at a military hospital in Asni on September 12.
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A crowd watches firefighters work amid the rubble in Talat N’Yaaqoub on September 12.
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On September 12, people receive aid in Talat N’Yaaqoub, Morocco.
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On Monday, September 11th, a woman sits amid the rubble in Douzrou.
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Search and rescue operations in Talat N’Yaaqoub continue on September 11th.
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A woman and child rest in Tinmel, Morocco on September 11th.
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A man is overcome with grief as the body of his 30-year-old son is recovered from a collapsed house in Douzrou on September 11th.
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Rescue workers carry a body in Talat N’yaaqoub on September 11th.
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Mouath Aytnasr walks in his damaged home on the outskirts of Talat N’Yaaqoub on September 11th. He lost his seven-year-old brother Suleiman in the earthquake.
Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP
A donkey stands in a damaged building in Tafeghaghte, Morocco on September 11th.
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Blood bags lie on a table at a blood donation center in Marrakesh, Morocco on September 11th.
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On September 11th, people walk through a rubble-filled alley in the old town of Marrakech.
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Women look up at the damaged Kharbouch Mosque in Marrakech on Sunday, September 10.
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Rescuers carry the body of a victim to the Moroccan village of Amizmiz on September 10.
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On September 10, women mourn in the village of Moulay Brahim.
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People attend the funeral of two victims in Moulay Brahim on September 10.
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Rescue workers search a destroyed building in Amizmiz on September 10.
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Women watch the funeral of two victims in Moulay Brahim on September 10.
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People inspect collapsed buildings in Marrakech on September 10.
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On Saturday September 9th, people seek refuge in a park in Marrakesh.
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A man stands near his damaged home in Moulay Brahim on September 9.
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Members of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces carry a body in Tafeghaghte on September 9.
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A damaged room in Tansghart village on September 9th.
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On September 9th, people in Moulay Brahim mourn the victims.
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The minaret of a mosque stands behind damaged houses in Moulay Brahim on September 9.
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A Marrakech resident navigates through the rubble on September 9th.
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Rescue workers search through rubble in Amizmiz on September 9th.
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A woman stands in front of her earthquake-damaged house in Marrakech on September 9th.
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People inspect damaged houses in Moulay Brahim on September 9.
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A damaged vehicle sits on a street in Marrakech on September 9th.
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A resident looks at a damaged building in Marrakesh on September 9.
Fatema Acherhri and her husband were born in Tinzert. The two grew up together, married and had Rajaa and Sanaa. Acherhri said her second labor was difficult and she didn’t think she could have another child.
Acherhri said she and her husband had no idea what would happen next. All that remains of their life in the village are the graves of their daughters, which lie just a few hundred meters from their former home.
Winter is coming soon and it can be harsh and cold in these mountains.
Acherhri’s voice cracks as she talks about her girls and how pleased they were with their new school supplies when classes began last week. How they loved playing outside with their father while he cooked couscous for them.
Sanaa, the little one, insisted on a trip to the hammam, the traditional Moroccan bathhouse, on Friday. Her father is a construction worker in Marrakech and only comes home on weekends.
“She wanted to be clean and pretty when he came,” Acherhri told CNN, trying to hold back tears.
She said she had a strange premonition when Sanaa asked her to apply henna to her feet last week.
“I told her she was too young for henna, but she said she wanted to be pretty and go to Ourika,” she said.
Ourika is a beautiful place in the Atlas Mountains, a lush oasis with a natural spring, beautiful waterfalls and tall green trees. The locals refer to the place as heaven on earth.
“I think she knew something bad was going to happen, she knew she was going to paradise,” she said.