Highlights: Morocco beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in Lens on Tuesday night in a friendly match. More than 30,000 Moroccan fans came to support their team and pay tribute to the victims. Before the match, the first played by the Atlas Lions since the earthquake, which killed more than 2,900 people, fans and residents had flocked to the foot of the stadium for a collection in favor of victims. The North maintains very strong links with Morocco, protectorate between 1912 and 1956.

Morocco beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in Lens on Tuesday night in a friendly match. But the main thing was elsewhere: it was especially the first match of the Atlas Lions since the terrible tremor...

In France, red and green tide of solidarity during the friendly match Morocco-Burkina Faso

Morocco beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in Lens on Tuesday night in a friendly match. But the main thing was elsewhere: it was especially the first match of the Atlas Lions since the terrible earthquake occurred on the night of Friday to Saturday night. More than 30,000 Moroccan fans came to support their team and pay tribute to the victims. Collections of donations, fundraisers of all kinds and banners of circumstance.

Collection point near the Bollaert stadium in Lens. September 12, 2024. AFP - DENIS CHARLET

By: RFI Follow

Advertising

We want to help our brothers ": like dozens of supporters and residents, Saïd Saïdi supports Tuesday night the victims of the earthquake in Morocco by bringing medicine and clothes at the foot of a football stadium in northern France, where Morocco faced Burkina Faso (1-0). "This is a special moment, all the support goes to Morocco. We think of all those who are there, who have left us," said Soraya, who came with her family to the stadium at the Bollaert stadium in Lens. "We are not at all in the same state of mind as when we bought our tickets," said the 37-year-old warehouse manager, whose daughters wave Moroccan flags.

All Morocco, all in solidarity, tribute to the victims ", proclaims a banner unfurled from the stands, where red dotted with green dominates.

"Share everything we have with them"

A huge ovation greeted the Moroccan players as they entered the field. Their opponents were whistled. The entire stadium rose for the Moroccan anthem, before a minute of silence concluded by "Allahu Akbar" launched by the public. Before the match, the first played by the Atlas Lions since the earthquake, which killed more than 2,900 people, fans and residents had flocked to the foot of the stadium for a collection in favor of the victims.

Very nice chain of solidarity next to the Bollaert stadium where people drop off clothes, medicines, various objects. General mobilization for Morocco 🇲🇦 before match vs Burkina pic.twitter.com/99hLuvXTld

— Herve Penot (@hpenot_lequipe) September 12, 2023

Duvets, bandages, clothes... Barely installed near an entrance to the stadium, the collection tables are crumbling under the packages, testifying to a surge of solidarity that has spread all France.

Thank you for the France that is always next to Moroccans, in celebration and suffering. " says Saïd Saïdi, wearing the jersey of the Moroccan team.

The voice of the forty-year-old chokes when he evokes his loved ones: "We want to help our brothers, share everything we have with them. I wish I was there, my parents are there, hamdulilah they are alive, but it hurts my heart."

The North, very strong ties with Morocco

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation announced that all revenues from the match would be donated to the "Special Fund for the Management of the Effects of the Earthquake that Affected the Kingdom". The majority of tickets for the match were bought by the community of Moroccans living abroad, she said.

A liberal nurse, Franco-Moroccan, Fatiha El Gazouani brought before entering the stadium crutches, a walker, boxes of painkillers, compresses. "Morocco will get by, it is recovering," says with a smile this young woman whose family remained in Morocco was not affected.

Donations are immediately loaded into a large truck to reach Algeciras, Spain, by road, then Morocco by boat.

Even more than other French regions, the North maintains very strong links with Morocco, a French protectorate between 1912 and 1956.

🇲🇦🇲🇦 A deafening minute of silence in Bollaert, where the supporters of the Atlas Lions spontaneously sang the Fâtiha, the first sura of the Koran, in tribute to the victims of the earthquake pic.twitter.com/6LgByEWdid

— Martin Guez (@Martin_Guez) September 12, 2023

Some 80,000 Moroccans recruited by intermediaries came there between the 1950s and 1970s to work in the coal mines.

Everyone got stirred. Fairly strong links still exist today, "says the mayor of Lens, Sylvain Robert, reached by phone.

Among the donors, Françoise, who does not want to give her last name, does not attend the match but has driven an hour to give medicine. With her husband, she had landed in Marrakech on Friday around 15:00, for a holiday. "We felt the earthquake. We opened the door of our riad, in the medina, there was a huge smoke, stones had fallen, we found ourselves in the street with our suitcases, dazed, "she describes.

Moroccan solidarity is great, that's why it was important to me to come here " she says.

In France, red and green tide of solidarity during the friendly match Morocco-Burkina Faso

In France, red and green tide of solidarity during the friendly match Morocco-Burkina Faso

"Share everything we have with them"

The North, very strong ties with Morocco

Trends 24h

Latest