Father of eight-year-old Malian boy who travelled to Italy through the desert found.

The father of an eight-year-old boy who travelled an astonishing 3,500 miles from Africa to Europe alone so he could ‘go to school’ has told his son to ‘stay there and get an education’.

Penultimate last week, the world was greeted with the news of the arrival in Italy, Oumar (an 8 years boy from Mali) who  decided he had to leave his tiny village near Tambaga in the west of Mali after an attack on his hometown four months ago.

He walked through the Sahara desert and spent time in prison, in Libya, before finally boarding a dinghy to try and cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.

MailOnline, reportedly, tracked down his father, who gave his name only as Moussa. After being told his son was safe and well and being cared for by a children’s charity in the Italian port of Ancona, he wept tears of joy.

He said: ’I’m so happy he is alive, he is my oldest child, I have another son but we didn’t know what had happened to Oumar after the terrorists attacked.

‘He is a good boy, and he never gave us any trouble, we miss him but my message to him is stay where you are, there in Italy you are safe, here there is war and danger.

Moussa, who with wife Aba was living in Tambaga, said: ’We had to run away from the village because it was attacked and we got separated and we had no news from Oumar.

He said he had given the boy his mobile telephone number and he remembered it – when Oumar was   rescued he gave it to the people on the ship.  

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) 2023 planning figures, 44 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are currently displaced by conflicts and violent situations like civil war, terrorism, banditry etc.

Displaced persons- especially women and children are often exposed to rape, starvation, dieseseases, lack of income, lack of access to education and absence of family bonds.