Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($330 million) to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-hit residents, farmers and businesses in its northwestern plains, the prime minister's office said on Thursday.
Royal Armed Forces and civil authorities work together to address flooding risks amid rising waters in the Loukkos River, in Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, January 31, 2026. Moroccan authorities
Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($330 million) to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-hit residents, farmers and businesses in its northwestern plains, the prime minister's office said on Thursday.
Weeks of torrential rain and releases from overflowing dams have inundated villages, farmland and the city of Ksar El Kebir in the northwest of the North African country.
Floods have displaced 188,000 people and submerged 110,000 hectares of farmland, according to official figures.
The government has declared the hardest-hit municipalities as disaster areas, the prime minister's office said in a statement carried by state media.
It said 1.7 billion dirhams of the relief budget would go toward repairing basic infrastructure, including roads and hydro-agricultural networks.
The remainder would fund rehousing, reconstruction of destroyed homes, support to small businesses and assistance to farmers and livestock breeders.
Moroccan authorities, backed by the army, have set up camps for evacuees and deployed helicopters and rescue boats, state television showed.
Access to the largely deserted city of Ksar El Kebir remains banned after the Loukkos River burst its banks earlier this month, inundating several neighbourhoods.
Water Minister Nizar Baraka said on Thursday that the Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160% of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows.
Rainfall this winter was 35% above the average recorded since the 1990s, and three times higher than last year, he said.
Snow cover in the Atlas and Rif mountains reached a record 55,495 square km this winter before shrinking to 23,186 square km, he said, adding that melting water would further replenish dams.
Morocco's national dam-filling rate has risen to nearly 70% from 27% a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.
The exceptional rainfall has ended a seven‑year drought that had pushed the country to ramp up investments in desalination.
By Ahmed Eljechtimi
Human Rights Watch has accused an Abu Dhabi-based security company of recruiting Colombian private military contractors and deploying them to fight alongside Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) between 2024 and 2025, adding to what the rights group describes as a growing body of evidence of Emirati military support for the paramilitary group.
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At least nine people were killed and six others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Rabat, local authorities said on Thursday.
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