Desolation after the lifeless rescue of Rayan, the 5-year-old boy who fell into a 32-meter well in Morocco

The whole of Morocco is in a state of “shock” after learning of the death of little Rayan, the five-year-old boy who spent more than 100 hours trapped at the bottom of a well 32 meters deep.

A few minutes after the body of the little boy was removed from the bottom of the well at 9:30 p.m. this Saturday, the Royal Cabinet reported Rayan’s death in a statement. According to the note, published by the official Moroccan agency ‘MAP’, King Mohamed VI had a telephone conversation with the child’s parents, Khaled Aouran and Uassima Jarchichde, to offer their condolences. The monarch expressed his condolences to the family of the deceased “in this painful experience,” the note says.

A case that has kept the world in suspense

As soon as the news of his death was known, social networks were filled with photos of the little boy and messages of affection and condolences addressed to his family. Rayan’s case has kept all of Morocco and the rest of the world on edge.

Many expected the “miracle” of being able to get Rayan out alive, despite the complexity of the rescue device and the child’s state of health, who was without food or water for five days, although he did have the oxygen that the troops tried to supply him with at all times. Authorities have not yet released details about the circumstances of the boy’s death.

Complicated rescue

Rayan’s rescue has turned out to be more complicated than initially anticipated. Clay soil, especially fragile, and the stones found on the way have slowed down the taskto the point that it has taken almost four days to reach it.

First of all, a huge vertical breach of 32 meters was excavated deep next to the well on the hill where the little boy’s house is located. Once that level was reached, at the height of the bottom of the hole, a horizontal tunnel was made to the cavity where Rayan was.

The health team went with a stretcher towards the tunnel this Saturday afternoon raised hopesbut two hours later there were still 80 centimeters to go, which were going to be excavated, the technicians warned, with great care not to create landslides in the final phase.

These tasks were followed by the attentive gaze of dozens, and sometimes even hundreds, of people who traveled up to hundreds of kilometers to see the outcome of what for days has become a national anthem: “Save Rayan”.

The neighbors have seen how a normally quiet area, made up of modest isolated houses in a mountainous terrainOr, it has become a bustle of cars coming and going on the roads, and a mixture of authorities, locals and visitors who have created some friction. The atmosphere of those who waited for Rayan was silent at night, with the hills populated with bonfires, people sleeping in the open in the cold, and the smell of fire and gasoline; and busier by day.

After the troops left with the child’s stretcher, everyone exclaimed “Allah is great” and sang the national anthem amid applause, and even one of the rescuers was killed.

At that time, still word spread that the boy was alive. However, when the news of his death became known, a sudden silence reigned in the place, while people began to leave the area.

wave of solidarity

From the beginning, Rayan’s case has sparked a wave of solidarity on social media. Artists, politicians and athletes from around the world sent messages of solidarity to the boy’s family.

‘Al Jazeera Mubasher’, the Qatari channel most followed by Arabs, kept a “streaming” for the past three days, while receiving a barrage of calls from citizens from different Arab countries, all pending the boy Rayan. Mothers and fathers from different parts of the world they called shocked cryingall with a single message: “Rayan was not the son of his parents, but of the entire Arab world.”