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Ba Ali Sahrawi, a man in his 60s, made international headlines for his tireless efforts during a four-day rescue operation to save the life of Rayane, a five-year-old boy who died five days after he was trapped in a well.
Ali Sahrawi, also called Ali El Jajawi, came from Erfoud in Morocco’s Sahara desert to volunteer in the rescue operation that started on February 2.
Rayane fell in the well in the Tamorote town of Chefchaouen on February 1. As locals and authorities organized to save the five-year-old boy, the story shifted from a local news to an international cause.
While billions followed the case online, some people preferred to travel to Chefchaouen to closely follow the case to update those who were not on site, or help in the rescue operation.
Ali Sahrawi was among the people who volunteered to travel to the little town to help rescuers who had been working day and night to save Rayan’s life.
Hailing from Erfoud, an oasis in the Sahara Desert in eatern Morocco’s Draa-Tafilalet region, Ba Ali Sahrawi has an experience of 20 years in digging works.
#الطفل_ريان تحية تقدير للرجل الشهم #با_علي_الصحراوي pic.twitter.com/XRyjbKvPP6
— TOPNEWS24 (@TOPNEWS__24) February 5, 2022
As the use of heavy excavation machinery proved dangerous for both rescuers and little Rayan the closer the rescue team got closer to the boy, Ali Sahrawi volunteered to help perform the manual, horizontal digging that was necessary to alleviate dangers of soil and rock collapse in the final stages of the rescue.
Along with two other people, Ba Ali helped authorities in the horizontal digging for more than 100 hours.
“It has been four days that we have not slept. We have been digging non stop to rescue Rayan. I did not sleep at all. I want to save Rayane,” the brave Moroccan man told the media.
Ba Ali Sahrawi noted he and other workers faced many difficulties during the rescue operation.
إبتسامت با علي الصحراوي تعيد فينا الروح والطمأنينة شكرآ يالله. pic.twitter.com/KbwjycdVuN
— Akmar Youssef (@Morocco35712522) February 5, 2022
“We faced risk. Rocks and soil were falling on us. But we never stopped, we wanted to take Rayan out,” he said.
Ba Ali Sahrawi received applause from Moroccans and non observers from across the world, with many reports in foreign media highlighting his bravery and selflessness in volunteering in the final, more dangerous stages of the rescue operation.
“All respect to this brave man,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another one said that the world should pay tribute to brave men like Ali Sahrawi.
As a smiling Ba Ali Sahrawi left the well after completing the horizontal digging, many expressed hope for a happy ending to the four-day rescue operation that had gripped the world’s attention.
Many celebrities also shared both Ba Ali Sahrawi pictures and photos of other rescuers, paying tribute to everyone who helped in the rescue operation.
Five days after the start of the operation, Rayan was freed from the well, but the boy had already died.
A royal cabinet statement announced Rayan’s death shortly after the boy was pulled out of the shaft where he had been stuck for five days.
The statement noted that King Mohammed VI made a phone call to Rayan’s family to express his sincere condolences and solidarity.
The King said he had followed the tragic incident “closely” and instructed “officials to use all means necessary to dig the boy out of the well and return him alive to his parents.”.
Although the story of the rescue operation to save Rayan did not have the happy ending that Moroccans and observers from around the world hoped and prayed for, the sad incident put a much-needed spotlight on our capacity for empathy and solidarity.
If anything, Ali Sahrawi’s spontaneous decision to leave his hometown to offer his invaluable digging experience to efforts to save little Rayan is a vibrant testimony to the “kindness of strangers” — that fundamentally human experience of offering our — or depending on others’ — selfless generosity and solidarity in times of tribulations.
