After Friday’s deadly Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, UNESCO representative Eric Falt expressed grave worries regarding the city’s cultural heritage.
Falt, alongside a UNESCO mission, paid a visit to Marrakech’s medina to show support for governmental efforts to assess damage in the domains of heritage and education and to assist in making structures safe and getting them ready for restoration.
Falt, who is the regional director of the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb, evaluated the city’s historic Medina for two hours and then published his findings after taking various images of the impacted regions.
“After a disaster like this, the most important thing is to preserve human lives,” he stated.
“It is also necessary”, he explained, “to immediately plan for the second phase, which will include the reconstruction of schools and cultural assets affected by the earthquake.”
Rebuilding Morocco’s destroyed buildings, according to Badaoui Rouhban, a former UNESCO expert on disaster prevention, might take years.
In order to assist individuals affected, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that the UN was prepared to support the Moroccan Government in any way necessary.
Dennis Francis, the president of the UN General Assembly, expressed his deepest sympathies and condolences in a tweet and urged the world to unite in support of Morocco during this difficult moment.
Former UNESCO official Yasmina Asrarguis spoke of the total destruction of the Almohad mosque of Tinmel which was the model that inspired that of the Koutoubia in Marrakech and then that of the Giralda in Seville, in a tweet on X.
“Priceless loss of the cradle of the Almohad dynasty, founding monument of the Kingdom of Morocco,” she said.
The earthquake that struck the Asni district of the Al Haouz province caused major damage to the historic mosque of Tinmal in the rural community.
However, the urban heritage of the city of Marrakesh did not suffer any significant losses, except for the partial destruction of the minaret of a mosque in the Jemaa El Fna square.
Atiqa Bousta, the deputy commissioner for the cultural and social sector of the Marrakesh Community Council, explained that “the priority now is to protect people, while the stones were not exposed to any harm, so the focus of the Red City Community Council is heading towards the priorities of sheltering residents of homes in danger of collapsing.”
The UN’s Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed also commented on the X app, expressing her “prayers and thoughts” with the Moroccan people.
In an interview with UN News, Nathalie Fustier, the UN Resident Coordinator in Morocco, reaffirmed that UN teams are prepared to offer whatever assistance is needed.
Asked to assess the needs of the people in the affected areas, she said “I think right now it’s really search and rescue and maybe blood and medical assistance for people that are still in the areas without good medical support, but also maybe food.”
Regarding historical buildings and monuments belonging to the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, an official source from the ministry informed us of its upcoming steps.
Throughout yesterday, a census was carried out by inspectors of historical buildings and monuments who then prepared a report.
Tomorrow morning, a meeting will be chairwd by minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaïd, to prepare an urgent program that concerns all historical buildings and monuments, most notably the historic Tinmel Mosque – Al Haouz Province – which part of it was damaged.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be prior to the inter-ministerial committee meeting and findings will be shared right after.
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