Rabat, February 7 (BNA): Hundreds of mourners gathered today, Monday, to offer their final condolences to the Moroccan boy who died on Saturday after days of efforts to rescue him from a well that ravaged the country and many abroad.
Five-year-old Ryan Oram fell into a well in the village of Igran on Tuesday. His body was finally recovered late Saturday after rescuers dug many of the nearby hills and then tunneled towards the bottom of the well.
Hundreds of mourners climbed the unpaved hillside road to the cemetery in Igrane, near Chefchaouen in northern Morocco, where they waited for hours for the funeral to mark Muslim burial rituals.
There were so many mourners that they could not accommodate the village cemetery and prayer sites. Two large tents were erected in front of the bereaved family’s home where mourners could stop to offer their condolences.
“Ryan’s death has renewed his belief in humanity as people in different languages and from different countries express their solidarity,” said one of the villagers.
Condolences to her parents also came, on Saturday, from King Mohammed VI, Pope Francis, French President Emmanuel Macron, Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and other notables.
Egyptian and Senegalese football players observed a minute’s silence on Sunday before the start of the final match of the African Cup of Nations.
Rescuers worked ceaselessly under the ever-present danger of causing a landslide in their ultimately fruitless efforts to retrieve the child alive.
“I am very sad,” Ali Sahraoui, a volunteer digger, told reporters at the funeral. “We spared no effort to get the boy alive. We dug around the clock in five days what could have taken weeks.”
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