Two adjacent four-story buildings collapsed in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood of Fez, Morocco, overnight on December 9-10, 2025, killing 22 people and injuring 16 others. The buildings housed eight families at the time of the disaster.
The collapse occurred at 11:20 PM on Wednesday. Emergency responders immediately began search-and-rescue operations at the scene. The injured were transported to the university hospital for treatment, while rescue teams continued working around the clock to locate anyone still trapped beneath the rubble.
An Aqiqah celebration was taking place in one of the buildings when the structure failed. The death toll includes children. One of the two buildings was unoccupied at the time of the collapse.
Local authorities evacuated nearby homes as a precautionary measure following the incident. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the structural failure.
The buildings were constructed in 2006 under the City Without Slums initiative, a government program aimed at improving housing conditions. However, additional floors had been added to the original structures over time.
Building codes are often not enforced in Morocco, particularly in older urban areas where aging multifamily homes are typical. More than 38,000 vulnerable buildings have been identified across the country, highlighting the scale of the infrastructure crisis.
The tragedy marks the second fatal building collapse in Fez this year. A previous collapse in May 2025 killed 10 people and involved a building that had already been slated for evacuation. In February 2024, another collapse in the city claimed five lives in Fez’s old quarter.
Morocco has experienced multiple deadly building failures in recent years. In 2016, two separate collapses within one week killed a combined total of six people. A particularly devastating incident occurred in Casablanca in 2014 when three buildings collapsed, killing 23 people.
Fez is the third-largest city in Morocco and serves as a significant cultural and economic center in the country’s north. The historic city is preparing to host matches for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and will also serve as a venue for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Infrastructure inequality has become a focal point of public frustration in Morocco. Protests swept across the country earlier this year, with demonstrators criticizing the government’s allocation of resources. “Official data falls far short of illustrating the poverty in Morocco,” according to Le Monde.
Citizens have expressed anger over government investments in new stadiums and sporting infrastructure while basic services and housing remain inadequate in many communities. The protests highlighted deep-seated concerns about inequality in health care, education, and other public services.
Fez is best known internationally for its walled medina, packed with medieval souks and traditional tanneries that attract tourists from around the world. Beyond its tourism appeal, the city remains one of Morocco’s poorest urban centers, where aging infrastructure poses ongoing safety risks to residents.
The Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, where Wednesday’s collapse occurred, represents part of the broader housing challenges facing many Moroccan cities undergoing rapid population growth. Multifamily residential buildings constructed decades ago often lack proper maintenance and oversight, creating conditions ripe for catastrophic failures.
Search and rescue operations remained ongoing as authorities worked to confirm whether additional victims remained unaccounted for beneath the debris. Emergency crews secured the surrounding area to prevent further danger to rescue workers and residents.
The investigation will examine whether structural deficiencies, unauthorized modifications, or inadequate enforcement of building standards contributed to the disaster. Technical assessments will help determine what administrative and construction failures may have occurred.
Morocco’s housing crisis extends beyond Fez to cities throughout the country. The rapid urbanization of recent decades has strained infrastructure systems and housing stock, particularly in areas where economic opportunity draws rural populations to urban centers. The gap between modern development projects and the maintenance of existing residential areas has widened, leaving many communities vulnerable.
The City Without Slums initiative, under which the collapsed buildings were constructed, aimed to address substandard housing conditions and provide safer accommodations for lower-income families. The program represented a government effort to upgrade informal settlements and improve urban living standards. However, the subsequent addition of unauthorized floors to structures built under the program demonstrates how housing pressures can undermine even well-intentioned development initiatives.
Local authorities face mounting pressure to address the building safety crisis before more tragedies occur. The identification of thousands of vulnerable structures suggests the problem extends far beyond isolated incidents.
As rescue operations continue in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, questions remain about how many similar buildings across Morocco pose risks to residents. The disaster has renewed calls for comprehensive building inspections, stricter enforcement of construction codes, and accelerated programs to retrofit or replace aging structures before they fail. For the families affected by Wednesday’s collapse, such reforms come too late to prevent the loss of loved ones, which has become a recurring pattern of preventable infrastructure disasters.