15 Dead in Morocco Food Stampede

At least 15 women died and five were wounded in a stampede during a food distribution operation on Sunday morning in rural Morocco, government officials said.

The victims were crushed as hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered to collect baskets of food at the market of a small town, Sidi Boulaalam, according to news accounts. The town is about 40 miles from the coastal city of Essaouira.

In the aftermath of the stampede, clothes and other personal items were left scattered across the ground.

It is unclear what led to the stampede. The Moroccan Interior Ministry, which reported the death toll, said it had opened an investigation. The donor who organized the food distribution has not been publicly identified.

At the market on Sunday, many who were injured were taken to hospitals in Essaouira and Marrakesh. A witness cited by local news reports said the donor had been distributing flour, cooking oil and sugar when the stampede broke out. Still, photos that emerged from the stampede left many taken aback on Sunday.

Morocco, with a population of 35 million, is generally regarded as much healthier economically than neighboring countries. According to the World Bank, its poverty rate fell to 4.2 percent in 2014, and tourism remains a robust part of the economy.

The Moroccan economy has gone through major changes in the last couple of decades with large-scale infrastructure projects like highways and Tanger Med, a giant container port. But critics say these projects did little to benefit the daily lives of most Moroccans. A United Nations ranking puts Morocco 123rd globally in terms of human development.

 “The image speaks loudly about the precariousness people live in,” said Mehdi Lahlou, an economist and professor at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics in Rabat.

“Many initiatives have failed because of the way projects were handled. Spending is not monitored,” Mr. Lahlou said. “In this particular case, it seems that the event was badly organized and the local authorities did not take the necessary measures to prevent this from happening.”