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Join on Telegram Marrakech – Morocco is grappling with a deadly measles outbreak, known locally as “Bouhemroun,” that has claimed the lives of numerous children in the country’s remote regions.
News reports and a video circulating on social media paint a dire picture, with the Moroccan Center for Human Rights sounding the alarm over the escalating crisis.
According to the Moroccan Center for Human Rights, at least eight children have died from the measles in recent days in Chichaoua province alone. The provinces of Azilal and Beni Mellal have also recorded child fatalities.
The highly contagious disease continues to spread rapidly in several villages in these provinces and in the southeastern regions of the country.
In a statement, the Moroccan Center for Human Rights called on the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to take urgent measures to contain the epidemic before the start of the school year.
They demanded national emergency campaigns and the provision of necessary vaccines to all heavily impacted areas to immunize children before it is too late.
Opposition MP Hind Bennani Rtel from the Justice and Development Party (PJD) submitted a written question to Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb regarding the rising deaths in the Ighil n’Oumgoun municipality of Tinghir province.
According to Bennani, the area has been suffering from the measles outbreak for 3 months, causing over 10 deaths so far, mostly children.
She noted that the disease has become rampant in villages high in the mountains and called for intensified awareness campaigns, child vaccinations, and bolstering the health center with a treating physician.
A distressing video shared widely on social media, which Morocco World News has reviewed, captures the anguish of an Amazigh grandmother in the remote village of Ait Haddou Youssef near Chichaoua.
In the poignant recording, she pleads for authorities to save her three grandchildren stricken by measles, lamenting the lack of a hospital or medicine in their village. The grandmother’s daughter had succumbed to the disease a week prior.
Local sources confirm one of the children in the video, the eldest sibling, has since passed away, while the younger two are in intensive care in Marrakech.
The Health Ministry has not yet issued an official statement on the measles resurgence ravaging the country’s hinterlands.
However, a health sector official revealed that a “state of health emergency” has been declared in Chichaoua province.
All health centers under the Health Ministry in the province are on alert to monitor cases and care for the sick. A similar situation is unfolding in Tinghir province, with over 600 infections and 15 deaths recorded, although only 11 fatalities have been officially registered so far.
Morocco had previously implemented measures to strengthen epidemiological surveillance and immunization campaigns nationwide.
However, the current outbreak underscores the vulnerability of the country’s remote areas, which are witnessing a dramatic decline in health system performance.
Urgent action is needed to prevent further loss of life and stop the virus from spreading as the new school year approaches.
Read also: Measles Cases Surge in Morocco: Health Ministry Urges Citizens to Vaccinate
