mohammed: desperate efforts to reach people stranded in mountain areas in morocco. after its worst earthquake in more than a century, the scale of the disaster is still not fully known. so, does the country have what it needs to cope? this is "inside story." ♪ although unwelcome to the program. i'm mohammed jamjoom. people in morocco are rallying after a catastrophic earthquake

struck their country. the numbers of dead and injured run into the thousands, with the lives of many upended. entire villages have been flattened, thousands of buildings toppled, and whole communities left homeless. the immediate and most urgent task is reaching people caught off by the disaster. our reporter is in a village where rescuers are searching for survivors in the rubble. reporter: this is one of the areas severely affected by the earthquake in the village. there were many casualties here, and the frantic search for people still trapped under the rubble is underway. people say there are about three people still trapped here. i just have to give you an idea about the delicate task ahead for the security forces. they have to bring in excavators all the way to this area. the rescuers are looking for any chance to get into the void of a

structure before they can decide whether people can try and retrieve people from under the rubble. there were about 30 people who died here. an extremely difficult situation for the people, for those who lost their loved ones. those who are looking forward to see whether they can find people under the rubble. and those who are desperate to know how life will look like in the near future. mohammed: let's go ahead and bring in our guests. in marrakesh is amanda mouttaki, a volunteer in her community and also for the amal women's training center. in dublin is hassan lemtouni, he runs a cafe there and is a moroccan community leader in

ireland. and in jeddah is martin mai. thank you so much for joining us. amanda, let me start with you. you are on the ground in marrakesh. i want to ask you about how much fear there is still among the residents of marrakesh. we hear reports of people who are afraid to go back into their homes and are sleeping outside. what is the current situation and what is the level of fear right now? amanda: i think in the first couple of days it was very intense, and i think the fear is subsiding a little bit now as people are just moving towards relief efforts. but i also think there are a lot of people who are now starting to worry, can they get back into their homes? structurally if there is any damage, just making sure everything is safe and in place. that is the fear now for people who have had damage, when they can get back in, and when it will be safe for them to do that.

mohammed: from your vantage point, what are the biggest challenges the country faces right now in the scale of this rescue effort? and what has the response been thus far? amanda: i think the biggest challenge is reaching into the very remote villages that are remote when there is no natural disaster, but now when there is limited roads and blocked roads and all that, just reaching those. but there has been so much mobilization and there is progress being made as fast as they can. it has been great to see how fast that that has happened. of course there is always the need for more, but it has been very quick. i think just grappling with what does this mean for the rest of the country, because these areas are definitely affected, but there are other areas of the country completely unaffected but are seeing the trickle-down effects as the country just has to pool all of its resources to

this one area. mohammed: hassan, you are in dublin, you are a member of the diaspora. from where you are sitting, what has the response been thus far from the diaspora, from those moroccans who live in other parts of the world who want to help? hassan: i think it has been kind of, everyone is under the first shock. to see the devastation that took place, i think everyone is trying to gather together and think about this first wave. the help is coming from all different directions. and i think from outside, talking to some of my fellow moroccans, in the long run to establish something that would go beyond just, let's get rid of the rubble and things, because a

lot of people have been displaced in a lot of these villages. i grew up in marrakesh and i have been to a lot of these places. just to see how much this is going to take to even bring something back, to bring total life or to help them to regroup or recuperate some of their losses. i can't even imagine being in the situation. my heart goes out to them and the people who died and are gone, god let them home. so we want to do something in the long run to bring back asperity to them. that is really the goal. and we're going to try and do as much as we can to do that. mohammed: hassan, it seems to me you are trying to set up some kind of infrastructure going forward to the people who need help with the most, it's ensured they would get that. i want to ask you as someone who

is outside of morocco right now, do you think that needs to be done more with the help of the international community? is it something that needs to be done more within morocco? how do you go about trying to set something like that up? hassan: well, first, there's a great love for morocco and moroccans in ireland to begin with. it is a country known for its generosity and its help for the needy anywhere, in the most emote areas. there's a company should of that and a combination of there are some -- there's a combination of that and a combination of some organizations. they do reach out to a lot of these villages. even before the disaster they used to go in the winters and bring certain things out to them. so i think the starting point is the awareness of how to spread

the word. this is how we can help, and get in touch with organizations already in place in morocco, or in marrakesh, that have access to the small communities that were affected. that would be the most effective way of moving forward. so it would be a combination of from ireland and connecting that. our moroccan ambassador is one of the most amazing human beings here, did so much to bring the relationship between morocco and ireland. so i am going to reach out to the moroccan embassy. through all that, whatever we can do to rebuild, to help these people, we will do it. because everything that we need to do, it needs to be baby steps

to making it more of a real thing to reach the people and needs to reach. mohammed: martin, there has been a lot of shock that this happened in morocco. i want to ask you how unusual it is that an earthquake of this magnitude hit morocco, and how does this earthquake compared to other earthquakes in the region and around the world in recent years. martin: good afternoon, first of all. i initially want to express my deep condolences to the people of morocco and all the people affected there. and pay my highest respect to the rescue forces and rescue squads that do an amazing job to pull people from the rubble and help. your question is a very good one. morocco has had serious earthquakes in the past. in 1960, a magnitude 5.8 magnitude.

further north there was an earthquake that killed a bit more than 600 people. that means earthquakes do occur in morocco, in this region. although not very frequently. that is attributed to the rate of plate motion and the accumulation of geologic stresses in the region. in algeria there was a big earthquake in the 1970's that also killed thousands of people. so it's not uncommon, but it's relatively infrequent when you compare with, let's say, japan, new zealand, chile, other countries more often hit by earthquakes. mohammed: sorry, go ahead. did not mean to interrupt you. martin: so if we think back, the second part of the question was other earthquakes globally in the recent past. magnitude 6.8 is fairly large.

but of course we all have in our memories be earthquakes of turkey and northern syria in february of this year. they were much larger, 7.8 and 7.6. and so, we cannot quite compare what happened in morocco with what happened in turkiye. nevertheless, people are affected strongly. many lost their lives, their houses. and how to make a life. so the tragedy is essentially the same. people are greatly affected and greatly scared of those who are on site. mohammed: martin, you were talking before about some of the characteristics in this particular earthquake. things like rate of plate motion, you mentioned. i want to ask if they are characteristics in this specific earthquake that make it different than other earthquakes, from what you have seen enough far. martin: yeah, that's an

excellent question. first of all from the scientific side, we only began to accumulate the data and information to make more in-depth analysis. there are what i would call preliminary explanations and physical models of what really happened during the earthquake. the united states to logical survey has already published something that allows us to understand a little better what happened. so, in rough terms, the earthquake occurred on what we call a south dipping fault under the high atlas. it spanned an area deep in the earth about 50 kilometers in length and 30 kilometers in depth. so it's a very large area over which the rupture happened. and the two fault sides moved by several meters against each other in just a few seconds. so that releases the sudden

release of this stress. now, that is nothing unusual compared to what we know of earthquakes over the last decades globally. so, that earthquake showed very similar features of what we know from other earthquakes of that magnitude in the past. mohammed: amanda, you were speaking earlier and hassan was speaking earlier about the concern for those in the hardest hit areas, in those very remote areas. we have heard and seen reports that residents in villages in the high atlas mountains have been calling on people from marrakesh and from other cities to come and help them. first, i want to ask you, are there volunteers from the cities going to those areas and trying to make it to those areas? and has aid actually started reaching those areas? amanda: there has been a massive, massive outpouring of aid. people drive up as far as they

can. there are other ways to get there, there are helicopters going up. so they are definitely getting out there. but that is good to think about it geographically. you have marrakesh which is a very large city, and up into the mountains as you go there are bigger cities and villages and then they get smaller and smaller down to very small family kiam pound -- family compound sizes that might only be 20 or 30 members really remote in the mountains. it is those villages that are really remote that are struggling to get aid. it goes to the bigger villages and then works its way up. so it will take a little bit of time, but it seems like every hour, every couple of hours, more news comes out another village has been reached. and definitely we saw this today this morning that the moroccan military aid was air dropping supplies out of helicopters to some of those more remote

villages. so there is definitely work underway to get to them. it's just a matter of how long it will take to reach those really remote communities. mohammed: hassan, from what you have seen thus far, do you think the international community is doing enough to aid those most in need, not just in the cities but also the remote areas? hassan: it is just a waiting game. how do you clear? you clear the path to reach one village, then you clear the path to reach the next one. that is the only thing that can be done. regardless if you have international help or not. they will move the same, because it seems the government has things in control. those who are called to help, they are helping. i think there will be more help needed down the road. that's really what i feel is, once you reach these people, the

help that's really going to be needed from the international community and everyone else is the aftermath. like what happened in turkey and syria before. so we need to take a page out of that and we need to go further, we need to help these people regroup, help them as much as we can down the road. not just immediately. mohammed: hassan, let me also ask you, how tightknit is the moroccan community in ireland and where you are in dublin? what have the efforts been like thus far as far as the outpouring of support you are seeing from the moroccan community there? hassan: a lot of them are reaching out to their families, close loved ones. because this is all an event that just happened. and everyone is trying to face it together and see what they can do.

some of them already donated money through different channels. some of them are asking and taking notes of what needs to be done. and i think we will reach out to each other and see what will be the most effective way of helping. so, every individual, their focus is not to make sure that your family, your people you know, the immediate people you know. then you move into what can you do to help the people. that's where we're at right now. we try to organize something that will be more effective. mohammed: martin, you mentioned before some of the past earthquakes in morocco. you talked about the earthquake in 1960. i wanted to ask you that earthquake in 1960 in morocco, that led to changes in

construction rules and building regulations in morocco. from what you have seen thus far in the reporting and the aftermath of this earthquake in morocco, the structures that have been built in these very romo and rur -- very remote and rural areas, have they been built in a way that they can withstand such tremors? martin: we must not forget that many of these buildings are probably older than 1960, or built shortly after. and so, these rules, the new building code might have been in place, but not necessarily applied yet to these structures. in particular if we look at the classic building style of mudbrick housing, these adobe constructions with wooden reinforcement in between, which is the traditional building style, that obviously is not according to modern earthquake safety standards. but houses that have been built -- mohammed: i am sorry, go ahead,

i did not mean to interrupt you. martin: more recent housing, concrete, what really matters is this is reinforced internally. so if this has not happened, then of course the buildings are more vulnerable than they should be. mohammed: martin, let me ask you this. morocco is a poor country, relatively speaking. how can a country mitigate against this kind of a thing when it comes to trying to protect structures against earthquakes? martin: yeah, that's a very good question. actually, it turns out that eldon -- that building seismically safe is not particularly expensive, particularly for residential housing or schools. if it is a single floor or maybe two floors. in fact, there are actually techniques that are used in nepal, which experienced a very large earthquake in 2015, but

even before that, in which they retrofit residential buildings and schools with simple methods. reinforcing the buildings from the outside with cross braces and things like that. so there are both ways to build from scratch in a relatively seismically safe way, but also to retrofit houses with local resources, local skills, accordingly. if you have the respective programs in place, so to speak. mohammed: let me ask you, how expensive would that kind of an undertaking be, and what kind of expertise would be needed? martin: oh, i can't comment on expenses. i simply don't know. because it depends on where you source the local materials and how many buildings you have to retrofit and what their status is. this is something i cannot comment on. in terms of the skills of the local workers, i think that is not too difficult.

and in fact, there's an ngo in california that works with the local population and trains local engineers. in this case, it is specifically in nepal and the philippines, to build the buildings, or retrofit existing schools and residential housing, with local materials and engineers. to make it relatively fast, efficient, and affordable for the local population. so it can be done. it is really an educational aspect that makes the difference. mohammed: amanda, i saw you nodding along to some of what martin was saying and it looked like he wanted to jump in, so i'm going to let you do that. amanda: no, i think traditional bail houses here are built in the traditional way, with mud bricks and a lot of these communities out there are built using their traditional techniques and traditional building ways that are not only

for earthquakes, but also to withstand really severe winters. so you have a complex number of things they are trying to deal with. snow, cold, rain, torrential rain at times, plus now earthquakes and all these other possibilities. so, there's just a lot to take into consideration. mohammed: amanda, let me also asking about the fact that when an earthquake like this hits, there's a lot of psychological trauma. i want to ask you how much concern there is amongst your community and the volunteers with regard to the kind of psychological impact this will have for survivors. amanda: yeah, i mean i don't think we are quite having those conversations yet. some people are talking about it, and it sways from people who don't want to talk about at all, to people where that is all they talk about. i think that is natural after a traumatic event happens. i also hope that there is some

effort put into how to handle children who have gone through this, and who are now fearful and afraid and possibly have lost their families. but, you know, for the survivors, as much aid comes in and as much as the death toll mounts, for the people who survive and for the people who will now have to rebuild, whether that is their livelihoods, their houses, their lives in general, that's also important. and i feel like it can sometimes be lost in the numbers. mohammed: amanda, you also mentioned earlier some of the logistical challenges that aid workers and other volunteers are facing right now. i want to ask you more specifically about that. how difficult is it specifically to get medical aid, to get food to these very remote areas? what are some of the real challenges right now people are facing in trying to get to these

places? amanda: i think the biggest challenges is that there are not that many roads in general that go up into these areas. there are some villages that even in good times are only accessible by mule or by foot. so those areas are hard to get. and if the roads you are using to get there are blocked from landslides or just boulders that are in the way, you have to get the equipment there to move those things. that means a lot of the equipment is down here. 30, 40, 50 kilometers or more away. so imagine having to move an excavator 50 or 80 kilometers up into the mountain just to start moving these rocks. that's logistically difficult. so i think it is just getting those accessible roads and accessible pathways and then using air support when possible. and there is not a lot of landing space either for helicopters.

if you are flying helicopter aid in, there's not a lot of flat spaces for them to land, so they need to be able to airdrop or figure out another way to either bring aid down, or to lift out people who have been injured. mohammed: hassan, from your vantage point, how difficult will reconstruction efforts be? hassan: i think it's going to be extremely difficult to do that. and i think, you know, earlier like martin was talking about, to rethink the way you always built, your traditional way of building your homes and things of that sort, of schools. so new infrastructure has to be refigured again. because if this comes again, then you will be at least

prepared and you will have less damage than what we are experiencing right now. and the other thing is the help. to have the funds and the people that would educate you about how to rebuild. and be safer in the future. and the other thing that amanda was talking about, the psychological part. the effect of that, especially for children, we see a lot of the kids who lost their loved ones, they are going to be displaced. where are they going to go? so that's another thing that has to be taken into consideration, to see where these kids can go for their education and their things. so that's another challenge.

mohammed: we have run out of time so we have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much to all of our guests, amanda mouttaki, hassan lemtouni, and martin mai. and thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera.com. for further discussion go to our facebook page, facebook.com/ajinsidestory. you can also join the conversation on x, our handle is @ajinsidestory. from me mohammed jamjoom and the whole team here, bye for now. ♪