King Mohammed VI has asked all the mosques in the kingdom to organize special prayers for the victims, the injured and also the survivors of the earthquake that shook Morocco on Friday night. In the most isolated villages that dot the Atlas mountain range, south-east of Marrakech, where the earthquake caused the most serious damage and where the greatest number of victims were counted, there is a lack of bulldozers and even the most basic tools to remove the rubble and hope to be able to save the last survivors or at least quickly recover the bodies of the victims (ALL NEWS ON THE EARTHQUAKE).
Why can only four countries send aid?
Yet in recent hours the Moroccan authorities have made it known that they will accept international aid only from four countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Many others, including Italy and the rest of the European Union, once the seriousness of the situation had emerged, in a few hours, therefore between Saturday and Sunday, had made men, means and skills available. As regards our country, the Ministry of Civil Protection has offered 48 specialized fire brigade units and a thousand beds. But the Rabat government declined the offers. Official explanation (provided by the local Ministry of the Interior): the lack of coordination, in this specific phase, could be counterproductive. Consequence: no one left from abroad. In these hours, which remain the decisive ones to save the survivors, there is not even one NGO at work in the country. The foreign volunteers present on site are there in their personal capacity.
Few events like major natural disasters have the ability to expose the fragility of a political system. This was seen in Turkey in February, when the earthquake seriously undermined the power bloc built over 20 years by President Erdogan. In Morocco the king asked the mosques to pray. But today there are many in the country who observe how Mohammed VI is an increasingly less present figure, guilty in recent years of having allowed a system of power to make its way in the shadow of the monarchy. And to remember how last year the king spent more days abroad than at home.
Source-tg24.sky.it