فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Fes-Meknes – With the arrival of December 2025, the annual suffering has returned for thousands of residents in the villages and douars of the Middle Atlas in the Fes-Meknes region, particularly in the provinces of Boulemane, Ifrane, Sefrou, and Khenifra, where snow has covered the highlands starting from 1,800 meters altitude, leading to the closure of all unpaved roads and the complete isolation of dozens of douars from the outside world.
Fatal Isolation and Total Disruption of Basic Services
Local sources from the douars of Tizi N’Telghomt, Agoulmam, Taghit, Ait Boubidmane, Tamda, and Taghzout reported that snow, exceeding 40 centimeters in depth at some points, has cut off the last dirt track connecting these settlements to national or provincial roads. As a result:
- Patients are unable to reach health centers, and cases of home births without medical assistance have been recorded.
- Education has completely stopped in dozens of mountain primary and middle schools due to students and teachers being unable to traverse the roads.
- Dozens of livestock have perished due to extreme cold and difficulty accessing pasture or fodder stored in distant weekly markets.
- Supplies of basic foodstuffs (flour, sugar, oil, butane gas) have been cut off for more than a week in some douars.
Livestock Farming Threatened and a Neglected Water Reservoir
The Middle Atlas mountains in the Fes-Meknes region are among Morocco’s most important livestock farming areas, where more than 70% of households depend on herding as their sole source of income. However, the absence of paved roads and cold protection projects turns every winter season into an economic and environmental disaster. At the same time, these mountains constitute a strategic water reservoir that feeds the region’s most important rivers and dams (Al Wahda Dam, Idriss I Dam, Agelmam Azegza Dam), yet their inhabitants live in complete isolation without the most basic services.
Urgent Calls to Open Roads and Provide Aid
Civil society activists and local elected officials have called on provincial and regional authorities in the Fes-Meknes region to intervene urgently to open roads using bulldozers and heavy equipment, distribute food aid and livestock fodder, and provide mobile medical teams. They have also renewed demands to include ending the isolation of these douars within the programs of the National Initiative for Human Development and the program to reduce spatial and social disparities.
