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MOULAY BRAHIM, Morocco — Morocco's deadliest earthquake in decades has killed more than 1,000 people, authorities said Saturday, as troops and emergency services scrambled to reach remote mountain villages where casualties are still feared trapped.

The 6.8-magnitude quake struck late Friday in a mountainous area 72 kilometres  southwest of tourist hotspot Marrakesh, the US Geological Survey reported.

With strong tremors also felt in the coastal cities of Rabat, Casablanca and Essaouira, the quake caused widespread damage and sent terrified residents and tourists scrambling to safety in the middle of the night.

"I was nearly asleep when I heard the doors and the shutters banging," said Ghannou Najem, a Casablanca resident in her 80s who was visiting Marrakesh when the quake hit.

“I went outside in a panic. I thought I was going to die alone.”

In the mountain village of Moulay Brahim near the quake’s epicentre, rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble of collapsed houses while residents began digging graves for the dead on a nearby hill, AFP correspondents reported.

The army set up a field hospital in the village and deployed “significant human and logistical resources” to support the rescue operation, state news agency MAP reported.

It was the strongest-ever quake to hit the North African kingdom, and one expert described it as the region’s “biggest in more than 120 years”.

“Where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough... so many collapse, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus at Britain’s University College London.

Updated interior ministry figures on Saturday showed the quake killed at least 1,037 people, the vast majority in Al Haouz, the epicentre, and Taroudant provinces.

Another 1,204 people were injured, including 721 in a critical condition, the ministry said.

Civil defence Colonel Hicham Choukri who is heading relief operations told state television the epicentre and strength of the earthquake have created “an exceptional emergency situation”.

‘Unbearable’ screams 

Faisal Badour, an engineer, said he felt the quake three times in his building in Marrakesh.

“There are families who are still sleeping outside because we were so scared of the force of this earthquake,” he said. “The screaming and crying was unbearable.”

Frenchman Michael Bizet, 43, who owns three traditional riad houses in Marrakesh’s old town, told AFP he was in bed when the quake struck.

“I thought my bed was going to fly away. I went out into the street half-naked and immediately went to see my riads. It was total chaos, a real catastrophe, madness,” he said.

Footage on social media showed part of a minaret collapsed on Jemaa Al Fna square in the historic city.

An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of people flocking to the square to spend the night for fear of aftershocks, some with blankets while others slept on the ground.

Mimi Theobold, 25, a tourist from England, said she was with friends on a restaurant terrace when the tables began shaking and plates went flying.

Houda Outassaf, a local resident, said she was “still in shock” after feeling the earth shake beneath her feet, and losing relatives.

“I have at least 10 members of my family who died... I can hardly believe it, as I was with them no more than two days ago,” she said.

Hotelier Bernard Curi said he had been thrown out of his bed by the force of the shock. “The shaking was so strong I couldn’t get back up again right away.”

The interior ministry said authorities have “mobilised all the necessary resources to intervene and help the affected areas”.

The regional blood transfusion centre in Marrakesh called on residents to donate blood for those injured.

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation announced that a Cup of African Nations qualifier against Liberia, due to have been played on Saturday in the coastal city of Agadir, had been postponed indefinitely.

Significant damage likely 

“We heard screams at the time of the tremor,” a resident of Essaouira, 200 kilometres west of Marrakesh, told AFP. “Pieces of facades have fallen.”

The USGS PAGER system, which provides preliminary assessments on the impact of earthquakes, issued a “red alert” for economic losses, saying extensive damage is probable.

Foreign leaders expressed their condolences and many offered assistance, including Israel with which Morocco normalised relations in 2020.

Neighbour and regional rival Algeria announced it was suspending a two-year-old ban on all Moroccan flights through its airspace to enable aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation”.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed “deep grief for the victims” and hope that “the Moroccan government and people will be able to overcome the impact of this disaster”.

Pope Francis expressed “his profound solidarity with those who are touched in the flesh and heart by this tragedy”.

In 2004, at least 628 people were killed and 926 injured when a quake hit Al Hoceima in northeastern Morocco, and in 1960 a magnitude 6.7 quake in Agadir killed more than 12,000.

The 7.3-magnitude El Asnam earthquake in Algeria killed 2,500 people and left at least 300,000 homeless in 1980.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese army said on Thursday it had prevented the entry of around 1,200 Syrians this week, at a time both countries are beset by painful economic woes.

Millions of Syrians have fled abroad since their country's civil war broke out in 2011 following the government's repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests.

Many have crossed the border into Lebanon, which the United Nations says hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that it had "prevented around 1,200 Syrians from crossing the Lebanese-Syrian border in the past week".

It had announced on August 23 that it turned back 700 Syrians attempting to enter the eastern Mediterranean country irregularly.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday expressed concern about a "new wave" of refugees crossing the border "via illegal paths".

"The army and the police are working to prevent" this, he added.

Lebanon, which has been mired in a crippling economic crisis for more than three years, says it hosts nearly two million Syrians. The United Nation has registered almost 830,000 of them.

Anti-Syrian sentiment has soared in recent months as some officials have sought to blame refugees for the country's woes.

A security official told AFP that "the Syrian-Lebanese border is porous and the number of soldiers mobilised is not enough".

"Most Syrians come to Lebanon in the hope of finding work, given the unprecedented deterioration in living conditions in their country," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Last month, the Damascus government scrapped fuel subsidies, dealing a further blow to Syrians reeling from 12 years of war and a crippling economic crisis.

The conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry.

Most of the population has been pushed into poverty, according to the United Nations.

After welcoming hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the early years of the conflict, Lebanon banned them from entry in 2015.

Since then, many Syrians have used smugglers to cross the border and seek other opportunities in Lebanon or beyond.

Lebanon's own economic collapse has also turned it into a launchpad for would-be migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to leave via dangerous sea routes across the Mediterranean.

DOHA — Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan met Qatar's emir on Thursday during his third trip abroad since war broke out in April, after also visiting Egypt and South Sudan in recent days.

Burhan, whose troops are fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), had spent months under seige inside the military headquarters in Khartoum and stayed in conflict-hit Sudan until late August.

In Doha, he received a red carpet welcome and discussed "the latest developments in the situation and challenges facing Sudan" with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, said a Qatari royal court statement.

Burhan left Doha on Thursday afternoon, the official Qatar News Agency said.

The war between Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed at least 5,000 people, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project.

Late on Wednesday, Burhan issued a decree dissolving the RSF, while the United States slapped sanctions on senior commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo, the brother of the paramilitary leader.

Sudan's ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said in a statement the decree was "based on the repercussions of these forces' rebellion against the state, the grave violations they committed against citizens, and the deliberate sabotage of the country's infrastructure".

Rights campaigners have blamed the RSF and allied Arab militias for reported atrocities including rape, looting and the mass killings of ethnic minorities, primarily in the restive western region of Darfur.

The army has also been accused of abuses, including reports of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas with RSF presence.

Burhan made his first foray outside the military headquarters last month and has visited regional allies in recent weeks.

Since leaving the capital Khartoum, he has been based in Port Sudan, an eastern city that has been spared the fighting.

Government officials and the United Nations have similarly relocated to the coastal city which hosts Sudan’s only functioning airport.

‘Legitimacy’ 

Late last month, as rumours swirled of negotiations aimed at ending the crisis, Burhan flew to Egypt, historically his closest ally, followed by a visit to South Sudan this week.

“The significance of [the trips abroad] is to confirm the legitimacy of Burhan with the international community,” Ashraf Abdulaziz, editor-in-chief of independent Sudanese daily Al Jarida, told AFP.

Both Cairo and Juba have sought to mobilise regional and international efforts to end the nearly five-month conflict, after mediation attempts in the early stages of the war had repeatedly floundered.

Multiple truces brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia were systematically violated, before the two mediators adjourned talks in June.

Announcing sanctions on Wednesday, the US Treasury said that under Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo, RSF fighters “have engaged in acts of violence and human rights abuses, including the massacre of civilians, ethnic killings and use of sexual violence”.

Many of the abuses took place in the Darfur region of Sudan, it said.

Daglo called the sanctions against him “unfair” in comments Thursday to Sky News Arabia, a TV channel based in the United Arab Emirates, which observers say is close to the RSF.

The US State Department also placed the RSF’s West Darfur commander Abdul Rahman Juma on its blacklist for what Washington called “his involvement in a gross violation of human rights”.

As well as leaving thousands dead, the war since April 15 has also forced 4.8 million people from their homes — one million of whom have crossed borders — according to the United Nations.

WAD MADANI, Sudan — Hundreds of families fled on Wednesday from a Khartoum suburb where Sudanese army shelling killed 19 civilians the previous evening, activists and residents told AFP.

The exodus adds to the almost 2.8 million already displaced from the Sudanese capital, whose pre-war population was around five million — since fighting began on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

"Hundreds of families are fleeing Ombada," a district of Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city across the Nile, a resident of the area said. The person asked for anonymity because of security reasons.

Another resident, also declining to be identified, said "combat has intensified since Tuesday" and included air strikes on Wednesday.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) control the skies over Khartoum and have carried out regular air strikes while RSF fighters dominate the city's streets.

On Tuesday evening the Ombada resistance committee said the army had "bombarded the paramilitaries with artillery and drones".

"These rounds missed their targets and 19 civilians were killed," the committee added in a statement on Facebook.

Such committees once organised pro-democracy rallies but now provide a range of community assistance and relief during the war.

The RSF has for years had bases in residential areas. But during the war the United States and Saudi Arabia, which earlier mediated unsuccessful ceasefires, accused the paramilitaries of occupying "civilian homes, private businesses, and public buildings", some of which were looted.

The US-supported Sudan Conflict Observatory has said the SAF "would still be required to ensure that civilian harm is minimised regardless of whether a target has been made a legitimate military target".

On Wednesday, residents in various districts of the Khartoum area reported fighting between SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, and the RSF headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The latest casualties come after 20 civilians died at the weekend in what activists said was an air strike in Khartoum's south.

The war had already killed around 5,000 people, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

More than 4.8 million have been internally displaced or fled to neighbouring countries, says the UN, which expects those numbers to rise further.

On Monday it more than doubled its aid appeal, which is now at $1 billion, to assist nearly two million people expected to flee Sudan for five neighbouring countries by the end of this year.

The United States slapped sanctions on top officials of RSF Wednesday for a range of alleged murders and rights abuses, including the killing of the governor of West Darfur.

At the same time, the State Department announced $163 million in new humanitarian assistance to help victims and refugees of Sudan’s nearly five-month-old civil war.

The US Treasury sanctioned RSF senior commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo and the brother of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, leader of the paramilitary RSF.

Under Abdelrahim Daglo, the Treasury said, RSF members “have engaged in acts of violence and human rights abuses, including the massacre of civilians, ethnic killings and use of sexual violence”.

It said that many of the abuses took place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The US State Department meanwhile placed RSF general and West Darfur sector commander Abdul Rahman Juma on its blacklist for what it called “his involvement in a gross violation of human rights”.

“According to credible sources, on June 15, 2023, RSF forces led by Gen. Juma kidnapped and killed the governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abbakar, and his brother,” the State Department said.

It said the murder came just hours after Abbakar publicly condemned the RSF.

The sanctions came as the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF continued to fight for control of the country.

Repeated efforts by outside groups have failed to produce a durable ceasefire between the two sides, led by rival generals.

US Treasury sanctions generally aim to make it harder for blacklisted persons or businesses to operate internationally by forbidding Americans or US-based businesses, including foreign banks with US branches, from transactions with them.

They also freeze any assets the targeted person has under US jurisdiction.

The State Department’s action places US visa restrictions on Juma.

Separately, while visiting Chad, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced $163 million in aid to help people affected by the civil war.

The State Department said more than 24.7 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance.

Some 3.6 million have been forced to flee their homes to other parts of Sudan for avoid the war.

Another one million have fled Sudan into neighbouring countries, the State Department said.

TUNIS — Two leaders of Tunisia’s Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha have been arrested, the party said on Wednesday, in the latest move against it by President Kais Saied’s government.

Ennahda was the largest party in parliament until Saied dissolved the legislature in July 2021 as part of a power grab. He has since ruled by decree in the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region more than a decade ago.

Mondher Ounissi, who has served as Ennahdha’s acting chairman since the detention of veteran party leader Rached Ghannouchi in April, was arrested on Tuesday evening along with the head of the party’s consultative council, Abdelkarim Harouni, the party said.

There was no word on the arrests from the authorities.

Ennahdha accused Saied’s government of seeking to divert attention from the country’s mounting economic woes with its latest attempt to “denigrate the party and its leaders”.

Another Ennahdha leader, former prime minister Hamadi Jebali, was released by police on Tuesday after being questioned about public appointments during his time in office.

Saied’s government closed Ennahdha’s offices across Tunisia after Ghannouchi’s arrest in April.

The Ennahdha leaders are among two dozen Saied opponents arrested since February, including former ministers and business figures.

In March, the European Parliament condemned Tunisia’s “authoritarian drift” under Saied’s leadership in a non-binding resolution.