Moroccan Teen Mourns Family Lost in Devastating Earthquake

"What do you want me to tell you? I lost my mother. She died in front of my eyes, here. [...] That’s all I feel," Ayoub testifies to LCI. Four other members of his family - two of his five older brothers, his sister-in-law and his niece - also perished in the powerful earthquake that Morocco has ever known since 1960, which killed nearly 3,000 people and injured 5,530 and caused enormous damage. His village, Talat N’Yaaqoub, located in the Marrakech region, was wiped off the map. "It was our house, and here was my room," Ayoub describes in the French channel’s report.

The teenager now lives in a camp, "in one of the dozens of blue tarpaulin tents that stretch in a row," which houses the survivors. He tries as best he can to adapt to these new living conditions. "I have to adapt to living here, I have no choice. Anyway, I have nothing else to do," he notes. To recharge his phone, he has to go to the other end of the camp. He takes the opportunity to get news from his friends in the neighboring douars, but also to mourn the members of his family swept away by the tragedy. "From time to time, I look at photos, videos of my brothers, my family to remember their memory," he explains.

Ayoub, however, does not have time to feel sorry for himself. With his three other brothers, he already sees the possibility of rebuilding a new house in Talat N’Yaaqoub.