Tragedy at Oum Er-Rbia: A mother's agony as search for drowned son drags on

Sitting on the banks of the Oum Er-Rbia River in Khenifra, tears mix with sorrow as Umm Mohammed clings to a faint hope of finding her son’s body.

Five days have passed since the river took him, leaving her with nothing but heart-wrenching words: “Did you abandon Mohammed because he was an orphan? I just want to wash and bury my son…”Her cries echo the agony of a grieving mother and a family left with nothing but endless waiting.

But this wait is not a matter of hours—it stretches into long, agonizing days marked by growing frustration over the slow pace of search efforts. Civil society groups in Khenifra have voiced outrage over the lack of adequate rescue equipment and modern search tools capable of efficiently handling such tragedies.

Calls have intensified for authorities to deploy better resources before the current sweeps the boy farther away—or worse, before stray dogs desecrate his remains, as one woman bitterly put it.

“It’s been five days, and we’re still sitting by the river. If he were the son of an official, would he still be missing?” one relative asked in anger. Another witness lamented that search efforts remain limited to a handful of Civil Protection officers, with operations halting by late afternoon, leaving the river to toy with the child’s fate overnight.

Despite the natural challenges complicating the search—strong currents and rising water levels—Mohammed’s family and local activists are left questioning: Why haven’t more advanced search tools, such as equipped diving teams or underwater drones, been deployed? And why are grieving families left to endure their pain alone, without a single official showing up to console a devastated mother?

The tragedy unfolded on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, when 12-year-old Mohammed was playing with a friend near the old bridge. A slip, a sudden fall, and the river swallowed him whole.

Since that moment, the search has dragged on, stretching into the morning of Monday, March 24, with no closure in sight—only the grim anticipation of an ending too painful for Umm Mohammed’s shattered heart to bear.