Flooding in the Southern part of Morocco has resulted in the death of at least 18 people, including foreigners, and four others missing, according to the interior ministry. The ministry revised the previous count of 11 casualties on Monday.
The ministry said ten people died in Tata province and three in Errachidia, including a Canadian and a Peruvian. Two others died in Tiznit, two in Tinghir, including a Spanish national and one in Taroudant.
Whether the foreign nationals were residing in Morocco or visiting was not specified.
Officials reported that extensive rainfall has led to severe flooding in typically dry areas of Southern Morocco since Friday.
Areas in southern Morocco have been affected “by an extremely unstable tropical air mass”, the spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, Lhoussaine Youabd, told AFP on Sunday.
He said this “led to the formation of unstable and violent clouds” that caused massive rainfall, describing the phenomenon as “exceptional.”
As a result, the area of Ouarzazate experienced 47 millimetres (1.9 inches) of rainfall within three hours, whereas Tagounite, located near the Algerian border, received 170 millimetres of rainfall between Saturday and Sunday, as reported by the Moroccan meteorological department.
Interior ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi stated, “The volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year.”