Morocco Buries Little Rayan Who Died Trapped in Well

Mourners gather during the funeral of five-year-old Rayan Awram, who died after being trapped for days in a well. (Reuters)
Mourners gather during the funeral of five-year-old Rayan Awram, who died after being trapped for days in a well. (Reuters)
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Morocco Buries Little Rayan Who Died Trapped in Well

Mourners gather during the funeral of five-year-old Rayan Awram, who died after being trapped for days in a well. (Reuters)
Mourners gather during the funeral of five-year-old Rayan Awram, who died after being trapped for days in a well. (Reuters)

Moroccans on Monday attended the funeral of Rayan, a five-year-old boy who spent five days trapped down a well, sparking a vast rescue operation that gripped the world but ended in tragedy.

The boy had fallen down a narrow, 32-meter (100-foot) dry well last Tuesday, sparking a complex earth-moving operation to try to reach him without triggering a landslide.

Well-wishers had flooded social media with messages of sympathy and prayers that he would be brought out alive, but their hopes were dashed.

On Saturday night, crowds had cheered as rescue workers cleared away the final handfuls of soil to reach him, after the marathon digging operation in the village of Ighrane in northern Morocco's impoverished Rif mountains.

But the joy turned to grief when the royal cabinet of the North African nation announced that the boy was dead.

King Mohammed VI called the parents to voice his condolences.

The child's body was taken to a military hospital in the capital Rabat, accompanied by his parents.

On Monday it was transported to the Douar Zaouia cemetery near his village, where hundreds of mourners attended his funeral, AFP journalists said.

Nation in shock

Rayan's father Khaled Aourram said he had been repairing the well when his son fell in, close to the family home.

The shaft, just 45 centimeters (18 inches) across, was too narrow for Rayan to be reached directly, and widening it was deemed too risky -- so earth movers dug a wide slope into the hill.

Rescue crews, using bulldozers and front-end loaders, excavated the surrounding red earth down to the level where the boy was trapped, before drill teams carefully dug a horizontal tunnel to reach him from the side to avoid causing a landslide.

Vast crowds came to offer their support, singing and praying to encourage the rescuers who worked around the clock.

But the boy's death left Moroccans in shock.

Mourad Fazoui in Rabat mourned what he said was a disaster. "May his soul rest in peace and may God open the gates of heaven to him," the salesman said.

Social media across the Arab world were flooded with messages of support, grief, and praise for rescue workers.

"He has brought people together around him," one Twitter user said.

But one deplored a "dystopian world" where "Arab nations are moved" by the Morocco rescue operation for the child while vast numbers of infants die in conflict or famine in Yemen and Syria.



Yemen Foils Houthi Plot to Assassinate UN Envoy Grundberg

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg in a previous briefing to the Security Council (AFP)
UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg in a previous briefing to the Security Council (AFP)
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Yemen Foils Houthi Plot to Assassinate UN Envoy Grundberg

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg in a previous briefing to the Security Council (AFP)
UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg in a previous briefing to the Security Council (AFP)

The Yemeni government has revealed it recently thwarted a plot by the Houthi militia to assassinate UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg. The operation was reportedly planned by a Houthi cell described as one of the most dangerous assassination networks operating in liberated areas, according to Yemen’s official news agency (SABA).

Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, stated that the plot was intended to create chaos in government-controlled regions and cast doubt on the state’s ability to provide security.

Grundberg, a Swedish diplomat, has served as the UN’s Special Envoy to Yemen since August 2021, following the tenure of Martin Griffiths of the UK.

Speaking during a meeting in Aden with the head of the European delegation to Yemen and several EU ambassadors, Al-Alimi said that Yemeni intelligence had uncovered a Houthi cell responsible for the killing of a World Food Programme staff member in Taiz, as well as other attacks on activists, journalists, and civilians.

He claimed the same group was preparing to target Grundberg as part of a broader effort to destabilize liberated provinces.

Asharq Al-Awsat reached out to the UN Envoy’s office for comment on the alleged plot and whether any additional security measures had been taken, but received no response at the time of publication.

Al-Alimi also briefed European diplomats on Yemen’s worsening economic crisis, aggravated by Houthi attacks on oil infrastructure and shipping.

“This is not only a military war, but also an economic battle to protect millions of livelihoods,” he said.

Since Houthi strikes halted oil exports, Yemen has lost nearly 70% of its public revenue. The government is now working to make up for this through domestic sources.

He warned that the Houthis continue to wage economic war by printing unauthorized currency and deepening financial divisions.

“This is a calculated attempt to collapse the economy,” Al-Alimi said, describing the group as a transnational threat involved in assassinations, smuggling, and hostage-taking.

He urged the EU to designate the Houthis as a terrorist group and adopt firm measures to isolate them as an armed entity operating outside international law.