For 26 years, a small window behind a rusted grill was Omar bin Omran’s only connection to the outside world. The teenager went missing in 1998 and although his family never lost hope, they feared the worst.
Then, on May 12, a tip-off posted on the village Facebook group led searchers to the house of a neighbour, less than 200m away from Bin Omran’s family home in the Algerian desert.
They found him alive, hidden in a hole concealed with hay.
Bin Omran, now 45, had apparently spent decades trapped in the house. The story of his rescue transfixed Algerians, many of whom have also experienced the unresolved disappearance of loved ones, and made headlines around the world.
But it also threw up new questions.
