An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale has shaken the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, leaving at least 2,500 dead and 3,000 injured. Rescue teams continue to search for people under the rubble. The epicentre of the quake was in the village of Iguil, located 63 kilometres southwest of the busy tourist city of Marrakech, which has suffered damage to its cultural heritage.

So far, the Moroccan government has accepted aid from four countries of the international community: Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, while the Moroccan Interior Ministry says it is still studying other offers of help it is receiving. Even neighbouring Algeria, with which Morocco has had a diplomatic conflict for years, has offered its support, assuring that it will open its airspace to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid.

“Many old houses in Marrakech and especially in the villages in the Atlas Mountains have suffered significant damage”, Andrés Prins, a Christian living Morocco, told Spanish news website Protestante Digital. “We are fine. Only a few things have fallen down in our house”, he added.

Christians on the ground coordinate aid

When the earth shook, “we were 64 kilometres southeast of Marrakesh visiting acquaintances with Christian friends who had come from Rabat”, said Andrés. “We saw some of the devastation, which is much worse in Amizmiz, where we now plan to bring humanitarian aid with some local Christians”.

According to this Christian, in Marrakesh “a coordination group has been formed which has been bringing in more people and agencies, mostly of Christian inspiration, and also with the participation of international churches”. “The main local church here is helping as much as it can, although without clearly identifying itself as Christian”, he says.

Morocco ranks as the 29th most hostile country for Christians according to the annual Open Doors World Watch List.

The focus of the aid being organised, says Andrés, is “to provide assistance to those who are already working”, and as far as possible also “to the families who have suffered losses”.

Evangelical organisations established in Spain told Protestante Digital that they have begun to contact colleagues in Morocco to explore ways of offering relief. The Christian missionary agency PM International and the Ibero-American network Comibam have already launched an aid campaign.

“May we embrace the people of Morocco in their pain”

Zaza Lima, a Christian worker based in Spain who knows Morocco very well after living in the North African country for a long time, says this is a moment “for the Spanish churches to embrace the neighbouring country in its pain, with respect, and to affirm the dignity of the people and accompany them”.

“May the church in Spain be a church that accompanies in pain and that in its closeness to Morocco embodies an attitude of generosity, presence and love [...] May we from Spain embrace the people of Morocco in their pain with the embrace of the accompanying God. May we, as a community that loves, incarnate this love for Morocco”, she said.

The community of Christian workers serving in the country share the pain of the circumstances, but do not lose sight of the opportunity to speak of hope. “We have the opportunity to bring our help and the light and the hope of the message of Jesus”, added Andrés from Marrakech.