A team from the Military Emergency Unit (UME), made up of 56 soldiers and four dogs, has already arrived in Marrakech after leaving the Zaragoza Air Base for Marrakech, on an A400 plane of the Air and Space Army, to collaborate in the search and rescue of survivors of the devastating earthquake suffered by the neighboring country. The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has announced that “later another flight will be sent with various aid materials from the Autonomous Communities.” Spain will make all the devices required available to the neighboring country for as long as necessary.
The deployed personnel is made up of a search and rescue team from BIEM IV (Zaragoza), with 46 soldiers, and a coordination team from the General Headquarters (UMEDAT), with 10 troops. They are joined by four dogs from the cynological team. These UME teams have already participated in earthquakes such as those in Haiti, Lorca, Nepal, Ecuador, Mexico or the most recent of Türkiyewhere they were deployed in February of this same year, locating six people alive under the rubble
The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, conveyed to his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, in the early hours of Sunday morning, the official request for help in the rescue and rescue efforts. The deployment of military personnel, joined by a large group of firefighters from several autonomous communities, was carried out immediately.
The UME Urban Search and Rescue team is deployed in the town of Tala N’Yaaqoub, a hundred kilometers south of Marrakech. According to the Ministry of Defense, this contingent of the Military Emergency Unit was the first certified to arrive at the disaster area. The Moroccan authorities, in accordance with the procedures of the United Nations agency responsible for the control, coordination and certification of rescue teams in urban environments, have assigned the Spanish contingent the task of coordinating all groups participating in the rescue work and providing them with instructions. for deployment.
At the moment, and according to diplomatic sources from the neighboring country cited by Efe, the Government of Rabat has only accepted the participation in the rescue work of teams from Spain, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The same sources have assured that for now no other type of help is necessary. France, a country very closely linked to Morocco, is not participating in the work for now despite the fact that its Government, like the Spanish Government, was one of the first to offer its help.