“It is not a village we live in, but a carian (‘shanty town’, editor’s note)!” this resident of Talat N’Yaaqoub tells us when we point out to him that a whole new city has been cobbled together between the various tents, huts and prefabricated buildings in the main square of this rural commune of around ten thousand inhabitants.
In Talat N’Yaaqoub, a shanty town was born in a few months. The old market gave way to an informal neighborhood made of odds and ends, composed of an improvised souk and makeshift dwellings. For a year, far from realizing it, the inhabitants have created their own “ghetto”. Their living conditions and situation are miserable. They are the victims of Al-Haouz.
Let’s rewind. On the evening of September 8, 2023, the earth shook in this province. A few hours later, two localities made headlines in national and international media: Ighil and Talat N’Yaaqoub. The first, a handful of souls and nestled in the Atlas Mountains, was officially the epicenter of the earthquake. The second, about ten kilometers away, had become, after nearly a day of opening up, the outpost of rescuers and soldiers.
The Desk had visited both locations for field reports. Once the humanitarian emergency had passed, the question quickly arose: would Morocco be up to the task of properly rehousing the survivors and guaranteeing them a return to a more or less normal life? A year later, on August 30, our team returned to the area to inquire about the situation.
“We can only wait”
For the moment, the inhabitants of Talat N’Yaaqoub, like those of Ighil, seem far from any reconstruction project. Families are crammed into white prefabricated buildings. Names are written on the doors of some bungalows. Those of the residents? Not at all. They are rather those of the former occupants, we are told: doctors and nurses. It must be said that this equipment is recycled from the Covid-19 pandemic. “Shock room”, we even read on some huts.
[…] - Courrier international
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