The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has launched a $200,000 emergency operation to assist the victims of the earthquake that devastated the Al-Hoceima region in north-eastern Morocco in the early morning hours of February 24, killing almost 600 people, injuring hundreds and leaving many homeless.
WFP, working together with UNICEF and Moroccan government partners, will provide daily meals – consisting of high energy biscuits and locally-procured cheese and milk – to some 16,000 school children and one-month rations of wheat flour, sugar and oil to 1,300 families in the region most affected by the earthquake.
“Our aim is to encourage families to send their children back to school and help them to cope with their losses,” said Programme Officer for WFP’s assessment team in Morocco, Nicholas Oberlin.
Many of the victims were caught in their sleep when the earthquake, registering 6.5 on the Richter scale, struck the port city of Al-Hoceima and its surrounding villages. Several aftershocks have continued to affect the area, some 300 kilometers north-east of Rabat, and many people are still afraid to sleep indoors, despite the cold and wet conditions. Some 500,000 homeless survivors are living in tents.
Morocco's deadliest earthquake was in 1960, when 12,000 people were killed after a devastating quake destroyed the southern city of Agadir. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
