Rescue teams continued their intensive efforts on Wednesday in the villages devastated by the earthquake, although hopes of finding survivors are dwindling after five days since the catastrophe that left nearly three thousand dead.
In parallel, efforts to open and expand mountain paths to deliver aid to remote villages are ongoing.
The earthquake has claimed at least 2,901 lives and left 5,530 injured, according to the latest figures announced by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday, with most of the victims having been buried.
In Tlat Niaqoub, one of the affected villages, rescue teams retrieved a body from under the rubble, as shown in images broadcast by the state-owned "Al-Oula" television channel on Wednesday, confirming the continuation of search operations.
Morocco is deploying rescue teams from the UK, Spain, the UAE, and Qatar, but they face rugged terrain, as the earthquake struck in mountainous areas with scattered and remote villages.
A member of the Qatari rescue team stated, "We are intervening in many places that vehicles cannot reach."
Many villages have been completely flattened, especially since most of the buildings are made of mud, as in the village of Inghid, where farmer Mohamed al-Mutawakkil said, "We have lost everything."
Military helicopters have been conducting approximately 35 to 40 missions daily since Saturday between Marrakech airport and isolated mountainous areas, including evacuating the wounded and transporting aid, according to "Al-Oula" television on Wednesday.
The International Red Cross has launched an appeal to raise more than $100 million to provide urgent needs for Morocco, while extensive solidarity campaigns are ongoing in various cities of the kingdom to deliver aid to the affected areas.
AFP correspondents on the road leading to the town of Amzmiz, about 60 kilometers south of Marrakech, spotted several trucks loaded with blankets and mattresses.
Conversely, aid convoys headed to more distant villages to the west, such as the village of Tikhit, where residents received food, bedding, and diapers.
Farah Fawzia (18 years old) said, "We eat thanks to the benefactors," as she resides in a tent at the foot of the mountain after all the village's houses were completely destroyed, and about sixty of its inhabitants were killed.
In the village of Adasil, also affected, survivors gathered around volunteers distributing aid, who came from the distant city of Tiznit, about 400 kilometers away.
One of the volunteers, Mariam Bakrim (38 years old), explained, "We launched an appeal on Facebook, and donations started arriving in less than half an hour," noting that the initiative enabled sending about forty trucks loaded with food and clothes to the affected areas.
Meanwhile, three warehouses were established in the Taroudant region (south of Marrakech) to collect aid and transport it by trucks or air to the affected villages, according to local media reports.
This region is the second to be affected by the earthquake after the Al-Hawz region, and both regions include scattered mountain villages.
Since the earthquake struck these vast areas on Friday night, relief operations and aid delivery have faced road closures due to rockslides, especially on unpaved mountain paths.
An official in the Ministry of Equipment said on Wednesday to AFP, "Specialized teams continue to work on opening many of those secondary paths through the mountains to secure access to small villages."
He confirmed that "the main road leading to the commune (circle) of Ighil, where the earthquake's epicenter is located, has been opened, as well as to the neighboring village of Aghbar."
However, these operations face the challenge of recurring rockslides due to aftershocks, the ministry official added.
On Wednesday, an aftershock in the village of Imi Ntala (about 70 kilometers southwest of Marrakech) caused a rock fall that lightly injured a person, who was transported to the hospital by an ambulance, according to AFP correspondents. This village is close to the earthquake's epicenter.
AFP