Moroccans take aid efforts into own hands amid concerns over official help

Morocco's national route 10 was once a pretty road through the High Atlas mountains, linking Marrakech to Agadir on the coast.

- Peter Beaumont

Winding through steep-sided valleys, it has now become one of the key routes to reach the communities closest to the epicentre of last week's earthquake, which has now claimed 2,900 lives.

With the road partly opened since the weekend as far as the devastated community of Talat N'Yaaqoub, about 12 miles from the epicentre, it has also become the route of choice for thousands of Moroccans driving their own aid to the mountains amid increasing frustration with the government's efforts.

It is not an easy road or a safe one.

In places the narrow paving has slipped into the valley below. Elsewhere, boulders and landslides have fallen on the road, now pushed aside by the earth-movers that have been brought up to open the route.

Signs of fresh rockfalls serve as a warning of how fragile this lifeline remains, especially if rain comes.

Since it opened on Sunday night it has been transformed into an endless series of dusty traffic jams, with the traffic managed by soldiers, Berber villagers and members of the Royal Gendarmerie who have been stationed along the road to guide the huge aid trucks into the mountains.