Italy Awards Gold Medal for Civil Valour to the Family of Mohamed Mahudhee, Maldivian Diver Lost in the Cave Search
At a Male ceremony on Wednesday, Rome honoured the military diver who fell ill while searching for five missing Italians in May, and opened a fund for his heirs that runs to the end of the year.
Friday, November 6, 2026/2 min read
Of the six people who died in the Maldives cave tragedy this year, one has often been mentioned in a sentence and rarely given a paragraph. Mohamed Mahudhee, a diver with the Maldives National Defence Force, was among the first MNDF team to respond when five Italians failed to surface in Vaavu Atoll in May. He fell ill during the operation and died in hospital. This week Italy honoured him.
The Gold Medal for Civil Valour, which the Italian side describes as its highest honour for acts of bravery, was presented to his family on Wednesday 4 November, Edition.mv reported. The earlier coverage of the case, including the findings on how the Italian divers died, is in our report on the autopsies.
Who was Mohamed Mahudhee?
Maldivian outlets give his rank as Sergeant First Class in the MNDF. He was part of the first diving team sent to the cave near Alimathaa Island when the search began, and according to reporting on Italy's announcement he developed decompression sickness, was taken to ADK Hospital and died during treatment. The search was paused after his death, and a Finnish team of specialist technical divers later led the recovery of the Italian divers, with help from the MNDF and the police.
Beyond that, little about him has been published, and this desk will not add to it. What is on the record is that a Maldivian military diver went into the water to help strangers and did not come home.
What happened at the ceremony?
The medal was presented at the Barcelo Nasandhura in Male during an event marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between the Maldives and Italy, with Italy's National Day also noted, according to Edition.mv. Economic Development and Trade Minister Mohamed Saeed attended with other senior officials, and members of Mahudhee's family and MNDF officers were present. Atoll Times reported that Saeed praised his service and thanked Italy for its support after the incident.
What is the Mahudhee memorial fund?
The Italian Embassy in Colombo and Italy's honorary consular agency in Male have opened a memorial fund at Maldives Islamic Bank. Atoll Times says donations go to his legal heirs and that the campaign runs until the end of 2026. Edition.mv reports that donations opened a week before the ceremony.
The wider investigations into the May incident remain open. The honour does not answer the questions about how it happened. It does put on record, from a foreign government, that a Maldivian diver gave his life in the effort to bring the Italians home. The Finnish divers who completed the recovery were separately honoured by Italy's president at the end of May, a decoration the Maldivian outlets noted at the time.
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