Morocco tremor revives trauma of September's Marrakech earthquake

Morocco was hit on Tuesday by a moderate earthquake, reopening wounds in a country still recovering from the loss and trauma of last September's Marrakesh quake, which killed nearly 3,000 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale struck the Azilal region in central Morocco. 

Morocco’s National Center for Geophysics located the quake’s epicentre within the town of Ait Mohammed.

Residents of Ait Mohammed hastily evacuated their homes upon feeling the ground tremors and hearing the rattle of cutlery in their kitchens.

The scene brought back memories of September’s earthquake (6,8 magnitude) when houses tumbled in the middle of the night killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, mostly in the villages nestled in the Atlas mountains.

At a primary school in Ait Mohammed, Samira, a teacher, had to stop the class after some students started crying and panicking.

"Many students in my class have lost relatives in September’s earthquake. They were terrified and traumatised," Samira told The New Arab.

According to official reports and residents' testimonies, Tuesday’s earthquake did not result in any casualties.

Nevertheless, the emotional toll weighed heavily on the residents who continue to nurse their psychological wounds from the trauma of loss and death of last year’s quake.

"When we felt the ground shaking, I felt paralysed. I remembered all the horrible death scenes I witnessed in Asni," said Hamid, a resident near Ait Mohammed and an NGO activist who participated in last year’s earthquake rescue in the Atlas villages.

Psychologues Maghreb, a local initiative offering free therapy sessions to quake victims, has warned of the psychological effects of the September quake and how it could lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among people who experienced loss during the disaster.

The Moroccan Health Ministry did not launch any official psychological support program after September’s quake.

"When I felt it all I could think of was what would happen to us if we survived but lost our house," said Khadija, a resident in the Ait Mohammed region. "We will live in tents and cold for God knows when."

Three months after Morocco’s earthquake, people in quake-struck villages remain homeless as the state continues to grapple with distributing promised aid and starting rebuilding projects.