Last week, a tremor rippled through Morocco's Al-Haouz province, shaking villagers awake at 4:25 a.m. Seismologists classified it as moderate, the kind of quake that usually leaves little trace. But in the mountains south of Marrakesh, where scars of the deadly 2023 earthquake are still visible, the jolt was enough to stir old fears.
"It felt like we were back on that night," said Reda Ambarek, a resident in Talat N'Yaaqoub, 100 kilometres away from Marrakech. "For us, the catastrophe never ended."
Two years ago, the 2023 quake, the strongest in a century, killed over 3,000, injured more than 5,000, and devastated Al-Haouz and the High Atlas regions.
Yet as the country marks the anniversary on Monday, survivors and officials remain divided over what has been achieved on the long, uneven road to reconstruction.
Victims' groups and civil society coalitions are holding press conferences and protests in Rabat, accusing the state of exaggerating its progress.
Under the slogan "Two years after the earthquake: Is this the balance sheet we await to achieve spatial justice?", activists say hundreds of families have been unfairly excluded from compensation schemes, leaving them in flimsy plastic tents or half-built homes.
"Many of us lost everything: our homes, our belongings, our sense of security," said Montassir Ithri of the National Coordination for Earthquake Victims. "We are still living in misery."
Officials counter that Morocco's recovery has been exemplary. They report having completed over 91 percent of the reconstruction, with approximately 24,000 homes rebuilt to modern standards and all temporary tents replaced.
Compensation totalled 140,000 dirhams ($14,000) for families whose homes had collapsed and 80,000 dirhams ($8000) for those with partial damage, along with monthly rent stipends.
Compared with recovery timelines elsewhere, officials argue, Morocco has moved swiftly.
"We are ahead of schedule," the steering committee said, projecting that nearly 96 percent of rebuilding will be finished by November.
But in the High Atlas, the reality is more complex. Rights groups accuse local officials of excluding widows, small farmers, and poor households on flimsy grounds – such as ruling that a family was ineligible because the father's identity card was registered in another city, even if he had long supported relatives in the village.
Others say their compensation fell short, forcing them into debt or migration to Marrakesh and Casablanca.
"They tell us 91 percent of homes are rebuilt," Ithri said. "But if you come to the villages, you'll still find families under plastic, children without schools, women without shelter. That's the reality, two years on."
Frustration has only grown as the government celebrates a different construction milestone: the World Cup stadium in Rabat, built in record time ahead of the 2030 tournament.
For many in the Atlas, the gleaming arena has become a symbol of "skewed priorities."
"The state boasts about high-speed trains and world-class stadiums," said Mohamed Diche, head of the Civil Coalition for the Mountain. "But here, in the mountains, people are still waiting for walls and roofs."
Even King Mohammed VI appeared to acknowledge the gap in a July address, conceding that "some regions, especially rural ones, still suffer from poverty and vulnerability due to a lack of infrastructure and basic services, something that does not fit with our vision of today's Morocco."
He urged a "real shift" toward regional development so that "the fruits of progress reach all citizens, without discrimination or exclusion."
"There is no place today, nor tomorrow, for a Morocco that moves at two speeds," he said, a line many villagers seized on as a warning to his own government.
On Monday, victims' groups plan to rally outside Parliament, demanding an independent investigation into alleged favouritism and fraud in aid distribution, as well as an end to the forced dismantling of tents until adequate housing is secured.
The recent tremor only deepened those anxieties. Nasser Jabour, head of Morocco's National Institute of Geophysics, sought to reassure the public, noting that more than 20,000 aftershocks have been recorded since 2023, most too weak to be felt.
But he admitted the ground beneath Al-Haouz had not yet "fully healed". For many survivors, neither have the people.
Psychologues Maghreb has warned that the 2023 earthquake may have triggered post-traumatic stress disorder in thousands of Moroccans, both inside and outside the affected areas. With little state support for psychological trauma, many remain adrift.
"We will never heal; not only because of the disaster, the loss, the poverty; that was God's will, but because of the injustice, the forgetfulness," said Hajj Naji, a 60-year-old villager in Asni, 40 kilometres away from Marrakech.
Clutching a sun-bleached Moroccan flag and a portrait of the king, which he hangs from the tray he uses to sell coffee, he added, "We felt like strangers in our homeland."