The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Tuesday launched a fundraising appeal for around €100 million to support relief operations in Morocco following the terrible earthquake. The international organization has already released one million Swiss francs from its Emergency Fund for Disaster Responses, to support the activities of the Moroccan Red Crescent on the ground. “And today we are launching an emergency appeal to intensify our action with the Moroccan Red Crescent,” announced the IFRC’s director of operations, Caroline Holt, during a press briefing in Geneva. “We need 100 million Swiss francs [105 million euros] to be able to respond to the most urgent needs”, such as health, water, sanitation and hygiene, she said. added.
Friday evening, the deadliest earthquake in the kingdom in more than sixty years left nearly 2,900 dead and devastated entire villages of earth or clay houses in a mountainous area of the High Atlas, where landslides have made it even more difficult access to affected villages.
Moroccan rescuers, supported by foreign teams, are trying to speed up searches to find possible survivors and provide shelter to hundreds of families who have lost their homes. But in certain isolated areas, residents say they are abandoned to their fate. “We must ensure that we avoid a second wave of disasters, and that is why, at this very moment, we are supporting Moroccan communities […]. This includes health, housing, access to clean water and food,” said Caroline Holt, highlighting the risks of water-borne diseases.
Morocco has so far accepted offers from four countries to send search and rescue teams: Spain, Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, Caroline Holt did not criticize Morocco’s refusal to accept aid from other countries, stressing that it was an event of considerable magnitude. I think the Moroccan government is taking cautious steps before accepting bilateral offers of support from governments and is focusing on search and rescue operations before this window closes, which will not be missed not arriving in the coming hours,” she noted.
“Coordination and careful consideration of the situation at this time is essential,” she insisted, explaining that “more chaos should not be introduced into an already chaotic scenario.” Present alongside him during the press briefing, a UN spokesperson, Rolando Gomez, for his part indicated that the United Nations “are ready to provide support” to Morocco. “Of course, we do not have the capabilities to conduct search and rescue operations. But we have the capacity to coordinate, we have the capacity to coordinate essential humanitarian aid in these very complex circumstances,” he insisted.
For her part, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that 41 tonnes of emergency medical aid, mainly means for emergency surgery, should be sent shortly to Morocco in from the WHO base in Dubai.