It was not until fully four days after the quake that the government finally got the army going. Last year alone, the earthquake bandwagon moved from Turkey to Greece toTaiwan to Mexico, and back to Turkey and Taiwan again. Earthquakes of this nature have hit many nations in the past, including Morocco, Mexico, the US and Russia. The toll in human lives, buildings and the infrastructure has been immense. Earthquakes killed about 25,000 in Turkey and Taiwan alone, storms killed 16,000 people in India and the Americas, and floods killed thousands more in Venezuela.
Earthquakes are beyond human control.
Siesmologists can only occasionally predict their occurrence. Even then they cannot confidently say when and where they will occur, and how big they will be. Because we cannot stop earthquakes from occurring, we are resigned to live with them. Earthquakes are, admittedly, not one of Africa's greatest problems. But it has happened before in Morocco, and it can happen again elsewhere in Africa.