Tamorot, Morocco - The death of a 5-year-old boy after he was trapped for five days inside a well in Morocco is triggering calls for a crackdown on unsecured shafts and, critics say, exposing the lack of economic development in his corner of this North African country.

The child, named Rayan, accidentally fell into the 100-foot well near his family home in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s northern town of Tamorot on Tuesday, prompting a frantic rescue operation that transfixed Morocco.

After a hectic digging operation and days of holding out hope, rescuers on Saturday retrieved the body of the boy. His death was officially confirmed shortly after, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes from around the world.

A Moroccan rights watchdog accused authorities of laxity in handling the problem of illegally-built wells, saying they put lives of people, mainly children, in danger.

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"Authorities have condoned for years the digging of hundreds of wells, some by cannabis growers, in a glaring violation of the law," the Northern Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

Cannabis is outlawed in Morocco, but last year the parliament passed a law legalizing its usage for medical and industrial purposes.

In recent years, Morocco has also experienced drought, prompting people in affected areas to dig wells in search of water.

In some cases, dry wells are left unsecured. Rayan fell into one such well.

"More than 90% of families in the area of Tamorot have their own wells not only to irrigate cannabis, but to meet their daily water needs and those of their cattle as well," Abdelhai al-Tayar, a member of Tamorot’s collective council, an elected body, said.

"Digging wells [illegally] in the region is due to water shortage," the local councilman told DPA.

According to him, most families in the region do not have title deeds, which are necessary to obtain a license to dig a well.

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"Rayan’s death has thrown light on the dismal status of Tamorot and the extreme poverty from which majority of its families suffer in absence of real development," al-Tayar added.

There was no comment from authorities.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco had phoned Rayan's parents and offered his condolences, the state news agency MAP reported Saturday, citing a royal statement. The royal court called the boy’s death a “tragic accident.”

At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis praised Moroccans for rallying around young Rayan.

"A whole country tried to save Rayan. They tried everything," the pope told the Catholic faithful in St Peter's Square, calling it an "example" of solidarity for people everywhere.

TV footage broadcast live from the site Saturday night showed rescuers bringing the boy out of a specially dug tunnel and rushing him into a waiting ambulance.

Earlier efforts to haul up Rayan were hampered by the narrow diameter of the well and the fragile soil.

In an attempt to bypass the obstacles, machines were used to dig a parallel shaft next to the well, and a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy, Moroccan media reported.

The horizontal hole was dug between the well and the parallel shaft using both manual work and electric tools to head off potential landslides.

But after days of painstaking work, Rayan was pronounced dead shortly after being brought to the surface.