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Ayoub dies after rescue
Rescuers in Algeria recovered the body of a 10-year-old boy, Ayoub, after he was trapped inside a well for four days, civil protection authorities said on Saturday.
“the civil protection announced that "the child was found and recovered dead"”
The civil protection said the child fell into an 80-metre-deep well near his home in the desert municipality of Brezina in El Bayadh province, about 550 kilometres (340 miles) south of Algiers, and that the well was dry and dug using traditional methods.
On Saturday evening, the civil protection announced that "the child was found and recovered dead," after teams had been working to reach Ayoub even as they struggled because he was "trapped beneath a thick layer of soil."
Images released by authorities and local media showed heavy machinery digging a large pit alongside the well in an attempt to reach him.
Rescue methods and timeline
Coverage of the operation described a race against time after Ayoub fell into an extremely narrow well about 80 meters deep and only 40 centimeters in diameter in the municipality of El Ghassoul, 500 kilometers south of Algiers.
One account said the accident occurred this Wednesday around 12:15 PM, and that an ambulance, a rescue truck, and two teams specialized in operations in hard-to-reach areas were mobilized at first.
Another report said rescuers adopted a strategy of digging a parallel shaft towards the spot where Ayoub was believed to be trapped, before carefully excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach him from the side.
A separate timeline said that by Saturday, September 5, the rescue operation had entered its fourth day while Civil Protection teams continued working in the parallel path, with a Civil Protection official saying the remaining distance to reach the child was about 20 meters.
Earlier tragedies echoed
Several reports tied Ayoub’s case to earlier well tragedies in North Africa, including Algeria’s December 2018 incident involving Ayache Mahdjoubi, a 31-year-old man trapped in an extremely narrow artesian well.
“In February 2022, in Morocco, Rayan Oram, 5 years old, was trapped for five days”
That December 2018 case ended with his death after rescue teams dug around the pipe, and the report said his death provoked sharp criticism against the authorities and protests.
Another comparison came from Morocco’s February 2022 case of Rayan Oram, a 5-year-old boy trapped for five days in a drained well of 32 meters, where rescuers dug a huge parallel trench and then progressed by hand in a horizontal tunnel.
In the current Algeria operation, one report said the incident had drawn comparisons with Rayan’s plight in Chefchaouen province, where the child was ultimately extracted but his death was announced just a few minutes later.