The country is still in shock. Morocco is preparing to bury little Rayan, who accidentally fell into a 32-meter-deep well and was stuck in it for five days.
The child’s funeral is scheduled for Monday in the village of Ighrane (north), where the tragedy unfolded, said a cousin of the child and a deputy from the province of Chefchaouen, Abderrahim Bouazza.
No official information has filtered on a possible autopsy. The body of the 5-year-old boy was transported to the military hospital in Rabat.
“The silence is terrible this (Sunday) morning in the village. Everyone was praying that he would come out alive. Everyone cried, ”testified a relative of the family.
Abroad, Pope Francis greeted “a whole (Moroccan) people who came together to save Rayan”, during the Angelus prayer celebrated in the Vatican. “They tried everything, unfortunately he didn’t survive. But what an example. Thank you to these people for this testimony,” Francis said.
Sign of the wave of sympathy caused by the tragedy, it is the royal cabinet which announced this Saturday evening the death of the child. King Mohammed VI himself called Rayan’s parents to offer his condolences, and they thanked, moved, the sovereign, the authorities and all the rescuers.
Work began on Sunday to fill in the relief tunnels drilled by the rescuers as well as the well.