Earthquake in Morocco: many houses were not insured

The gap between the damage caused by the deadly earthquake in Morocco and the property actually insured risks being considerable, with many houses not being covered, reinsurer Scor ruled on Sunday.

The human toll for the country, which was hit by a violent earthquake during the night from Friday to Saturday, is already at least 2,500 dead.

This disaster is all the more "dramatic" , according to Thierry Léger, general manager of Scor , whose role is to insure insurers against large-scale events, that in addition to the numerous lives lost, many houses were not not designed to withstand an earthquake and were therefore difficult to insure against this risk.

According to Jean-Paul Conoscente, general manager of the group's damage branch, the rate of insured persons is thus lower than in Turkey, which was hit by an earthquake last February, and "the gap between damage economic and property insured should be more important .

According to a preliminary estimate from the World Bank , the economic losses caused by the disaster in Turkey and Syria are estimated at $34 billion, but the costs for insurance companies have been estimated at $5.3 billion by the reinsurer Swiss Re .

In Morocco , "the losses for insurers will be much lower than in Turkey" , underlined Mr. Conoscente, without providing a precise figure.