From relief teams to volunteers, Morocco rallies for Spain amid Valencia flood disaster

Morocco extended help to Spain as its Valencia region grapples with the aftermath of catastrophic floods that claimed at least 223 lives and injured thousands. 

On 13 November, an official Moroccan team of 70 personnel arrived in Valencia, bringing with them 24 water-pumping trucks and a support vehicle to assist with clean-up efforts. 

The mission, ordered by the Moroccan King Mohamed VI, was reported by the state news agency MAP.  

Spain has been working closely with international partners to expedite recovery efforts. 

Morocco was among the first nations to offer aid following the October floods, with Portugal and France also contributing equipment and manpower to the affected areas.  

Spain is home to over 888,000 Moroccan nationals.

Death and destruction within minutes

The Moroccan consulate in Valencia confirmed to The New Arab that at least seven Moroccan nationals were killed in the floods, with eight others still missing.  

"There's a large Moroccan community here in Valencia. People are still struggling to grasp the sheer magnitude of loss and death that unfolded in minutes," Youssef K., a Moroccan resident in Spain, said to TNA from Valencia.

The floods, caused by intense downpours, swept through eastern Spain, leaving residents with no time to act. People were trapped in homes and vehicles as the water surged, claiming hundreds of lives and thousands of livelihoods in its path.  

Youssef, like many other Moroccans living in Spain, travelled from nearby cities to volunteer in recovery efforts as official aid fell short. 

From Murcia, he and his friends joined locals in clearing rubble, cooking hot meals for devastated families, and offering emotional support to those grieving loved ones and their life savings lost to the floodwaters.  

"Our organisation cannot provide assistance exclusively to Moroccans as if others were not people too", said Mohamed Chaib, President of Ibn Battuta Foundation, a local NGO that provides support for migrants, namely Moroccans, which also joined aid efforts.

"In an emergency, we do not act based on nationalities but rather on the people who are suffering, regardless of their origin," added Chaib in a statement to TNA.

A viral video circulating on social media, captioned "Muslims helping Valencia," shows dozens of hijabi women cleaning a church and distributing food across the city. 

Other clips highlight Moroccan volunteers making traditional sweets to bring joy to children in the affected areas.  

In a heart-warming gesture, a group of Moroccan barbers travelled from Murcia to provide free haircuts to locals, earning praise and headlines in the Spanish media. 

"This is the real Spain," declared one report, applauding the unity displayed by the country's diverse communities in the face of tragedy.  

But lagging relief effort internally 

In the days following the disaster, between 45,000 and 50,000 volunteers, including many Moroccans, arrived in Valencia to help with clean-up operations and food distribution, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.

Volunteers are not organised externally; instead, once they arrive individually, they are coordinated by the Volunteer Assistance Centre of the Valencian Community, explained the president of Ibn Battuta Foundation in a statement to TNA.

While Morocco's community-driven efforts earned widespread acclaim, the Moroccan government's official aid to Spain drew criticism on social media, with some pointing to the lagging recovery efforts in the Atlas Mountains over a year after a deadly earthquake struck the region.  

Spain had been one of the first nations to send emergency teams to Morocco in the wake of the September 2023 quake. Yet, since international teams left, the Moroccan government has struggled to fulfil promises of aid and rebuilding, leaving hundreds of families still living in makeshift camps.  

The floods in Spain are part of a broader regional weather phenomenon that also triggered less severe flooding in Morocco in September. With red alerts continuing to sound across Spain, Moroccan quake survivors fear a second tragedy might strike their villages while they remain in limbo, awaiting recovery from the first.