At least 18 people, including three foreigners, died in floods caused by torrential rains in southern Morocco over the weekend – a rare occurrence in these normally arid regions.
The search for four missing people in the province of Tata is ongoing, according to a new report from the Ministry of the Interior released on Monday evening.
From Friday to Sunday, heavy rains, accompanied by high water and flooding, hit mainly semi-arid localities, according to Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology (GDM).
An “exceptional” phenomenon due to the rise of “an extremely unstable tropical air mass,” as per the GDM report.
Rachid al-Khalfi, the spokesperson for the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, pointed out on Sunday evening that “the volume of rainfall recorded in two days is equivalent to that experienced by these regions in normal weather over an entire year.”
The Ouarzazate region, 500 km south of Rabat, received 47 mm of water in three hours on Friday. In Tagounite, near Zagora, not far from the Algerian border, up to 170 mm of water were recorded between Saturday and Sunday, according to the GDM.
#World
At least 18 people, including three foreigners, died in #floods caused by torrential #rains in southern #Morocco over the weekend, a rare phenomenon in normally arid regions. pic.twitter.com/kHFCx6mZdk— This is Beirut (@ThisIsBeirut_) September 10, 2024
Similar phenomenon in southern Algeria
Meanwhile, in neighboring Algeria, “a rain front of similar violence has affected desert areas,” according to the Algerian Civil Protection.
The death toll has risen to six since Friday, according to the same source.
The bodies of the victims, aged between 10 and 59, were recovered from swollen rivers in Tamanrasset (2,000 km south of Algiers), Naâma (600 km south-west of Algiers), Béchar (950 km south-west of Algiers) and Illizi (1,850 km south of Algiers).
With AFP
