<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The first resident of Tafeghaghte we met offered a blunt assessment of the devastation caused by Morocco's earthquake.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"People in this village are either in hospital or dead," they said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As we clambered up to the top of the rubble we understood how no one could have escaped unscathed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bricks and stones of their traditional houses were no match for the size of this quake.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ninety of the 200 residents here are confirmed dead and many more are missing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They didn't have the chance to get away. They didn't have time to save themselves," says Hassan, who's also made his way up the rubble.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hassan says that his uncle is still buried beneath the rubble. There is no hope he will be dug out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No one here has the machinery to do it and outside expertise has not arrived.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Allah brought this and we thank Allah for everything. But now we need the help of our government. They are late, very late in coming to help people," he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hassan adds that the Moroccan authorities should accept all offers of international assistance, but fears pride may prevent that happening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other side of this tiny community, we see that everyone seems to be comforting one man in particular.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We discover his name is Abdou Rahman. He has lost his wife and his three boys.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our house was up there," he says pointing to the area where it once stood. It is now just part of an expanse of debris.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You can see the white blankets and the furniture too. Everything else has gone."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abdou Rahman says he ran 3km (1.9 miles) home from the petrol station where he worked after the earthquake hit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He says he instinctively began calling out for his children, his shouts joining a din of others doing the same. There was no reply for him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We buried them yesterday," he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When we found them, they were all huddled together. The three boys were asleep. They went down with the earthquake."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a large tent just off the winding mountain road that connects the village to the outside world, dozens of families are sitting together.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is inconsolable crying coming from every direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This latest wave of grief has been prompted by the body of a 10-year-old girl, Khalifa, being pulled from the debris.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is grief in its rawest form. One woman faints, and another slumps into her chair and wails.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morocco's tragedy is that this scene is being played out in village after village across the Atlas Mountains.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Traditional communities may have been content to be separate from some of the pressures of the modern world, but now, more than ever, they need outside help. Desperately so - and as quickly as possible. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>