Torrential rains and floods have left at least 18 dead since Friday in southern Morocco, an “exceptional” climatic phenomenon which has also affected neighboring Algeria, we learned on Monday, September 9.
At least 18 people, including three foreigners, died in floods caused this weekend by exceptional torrential rains in southern Morocco, and four others are being actively sought, the Interior Ministry said in a new report on Monday evening.
Ten people died in the province of Tata, three in Errachidia including a Peruvian and a Canadian, two in Tiznit, two in Tinghir including a Spaniard, and one in Taroudant, the ministry detailed in an updated report.
The ministry did not specify whether the foreign nationals were tourists. The search continues for four people missing in Tata province, the same source said.
Two dead in Algeria
Heavy rains accompanied by floods and inundations fell from Friday to Sunday in mainly semi-arid localities, according to the General Directorate of Meteorology in Morocco (DGM).
An “exceptional” phenomenon due to the rise of “an extremely unstable tropical air mass”, explained the DGM.
The region of Ouarzazate, 500 kilometres south of Rabat, received 47 mm of water in three hours on Friday, and up to 170 mm between Saturday and Sunday in Tagounite, near Zagora, not far from the Algerian border, the same source indicated.
“The volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions experience in normal times during an entire year,” stressed the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, Rachid El Khalfi, on Sunday evening.
In neighboring Algeria, a similarly violent rain front has hit desert areas, according to the Algerian Civil Protection. Two people swept away by the waters were being sought Sunday evening in Tamanrasset, about 2,000 km south of Algiers, and in El Bayadh, 600 km southwest of Algiers, according to the Civil Protection.
