Khadija’s baby does not yet have a name and his first home is a tent next to the road.
He was born minutes before it occurred Friday night’s deadly earthquake in Morocco.
Although Khadija and her daughter were unharmed, the Marrakech hospital where they were staying was evacuated. After a quick check, they were asked to leave just 3 hours after the birth.
“They told us we had to leave for fear of the aftershocks,” he explained.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook the center of the country, with its epicenter 71 kilometers from the tourist resort of Marrakech. For now around 2,500 people have died in a dozen provinces and the number of injured has risen to more than 2,420. About 20 minutes later there was a magnitude 4.9 aftershock.
With their newborn in their arms, Khadija and her husband tried to take a taxi early on Saturday to go to their home in Taddart, in the Atlas Mountains, about 65 kilometers from Marrakech.
But on the way they found that the roads were blocked due to landslides and they only reached the town of Asni, about 15 kilometers from their final destination.
Since then, the family He lives in a basic tent that they have managed to build next to the main road.
“I have not received any help or assistance from the authorities,” she told us, holding her baby while sheltering from the sun under a flimsy piece of tarp.
“We asked some people in this town for blankets to have something to cover ourselves with. We only have God.”
Khadija told us that she only has one set of clothes for the baby.
Friends from your hometown They have been told that their house is very damaged and they don’t know when they will be able to have a suitable place to stay.
Growing anger
Near the place where Khadija camps, Frustration grows as the days go by and barely any aid reaches the towns and villages in the mountainous areas south of Marrakech.
In Asni, just 50 kilometers from Marrakech, people say they need urgent help.
A group of angry people surrounded a local reporter and vented their frustrations at him: “We don’t have food, we don’t have bread or vegetables. We do not have anything”.
The reporter, in the center of the crowd, had to be escorted away by the police, while people still followed him, desperate and trying to vent their anger.
“No one has come to us, we have nothing. We only have God and the king,” said a man in the crowd who did not want to give his name.
Since the earthquake she has lived on the side of the town’s main road with her four children. Her house is still standing, but all the walls are badly cracked and they are too afraid to stay there.
They have managed to go back and grab some blankets, the only thing they have to sleep on now.
At one point, a truck drove through the crowd. Some people tried to flag him down, desperately hoping he would leave them supplies. But the truck continued on its way, followed by boos.
Some say they have received tents from authorities, but there are not enough for everyone.
Nearby is Mbarka, another person who lives in a tent. He guided us through the side streets to her house, where she can no longer live.
“I don’t have the means to rebuild the house. At the moment, only the people in the area help us,” she told us.
He lived there with his two daughters, his son-in-law and three grandchildren.
When their house began to shake, they ran outside and were almost hit by the collapse of a much larger house that began to slide down the hill.
“We believe that the government will help, but there are 120 towns in the area,” said his son-in-law Abdelhadi.
With so many people in need of help, a large number of people will have to wait longer for assistance.
Keep reading:
* Morocco fights to save earthquake survivors against the clock
* Achraf Hakimi invites blood donation for those injured by the earthquake in Morocco
* 6 climate events that hit the Earth’s northern hemisphere hard this summer
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