Exclusive: A baby lost in chaos has been found in the air transport in Afghanistan, he has returned to his family after a long fatigue.

By Mica Rosenberg, Jonathan Landay and James Mackenzie

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A baby boy who was desperately handed over to a soldier by a U.S. wall has been found desperately handed over to a soldier by an Afghan wall and was reunited with his relatives in Kabul on Saturday.

Sohail Ahmadi was just two months old when he disappeared on August 19, when thousands of people fled Afghanistan when he fell into the hands of the Taliban.

After an exclusive Reuters story published with his photos in November https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-baby-handed-us-soldiers-chaos-afghanistan-airlift-still-missing-2021-11-05. the baby was in Kabul, where a 29-year-old taxi driver named Hamid Safi found him at the airport and took him home to grow up like his own.

After more than seven weeks of negotiations and prayers, and ultimately a brief detention by the Taliban police, Safik finally returned the baby to his grandfather in joy and to other relatives still in Kabul.

They said they would seek reunion with parents and siblings who had been evacuated to the United States months ago.

During the turbulent evacuation of Afghanistan over the summer, Mirza Ali Ahmadi – the boy’s father who worked as a security guard at the US embassy – and his wife Suraya feared their son would be crushed in the crowd as they approached the airport gates. A flight to the United States.

Ahmadi told Reuters in early November that in his desperation that day, he had handed over a uniformed soldier who thought he was an American over the wall at Sohail Airport, who would soon make the remaining 5 meters (15 feet) to the entrance. recover.

At that moment, the Taliban pushed the forces back and it would take another half hour for Ahmadi, his wife and four other children to enter.

But by then the baby was nowhere to be seen.

Ahmadi said he was desperately looking for his son inside the airport and authorities told him he was likely to leave the country separately and join them later.

The rest of the family was evacuated, eventually ending up at a Texas military base. For months they had no idea where their son was.

The case highlights the plight of many parents separated from their children https://www.reuters.com/world/when-are-my-parents-coming-1300-afghan-children-evacuated-us-limbo-2021-11- 10 evacuations in a swift effort and after 20 years of war when U.S. forces withdrew from the country.

Without over-stretching the U.S. embassy and international organizations in Afghanistan, Afghan refugees have struggled to find answers about the timing or opportunity for such complex encounters.

The U.S. Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

ONLY AT THE AIRPORT

On the same day that Ahmadi and his family separated from their children, Safi slipped through the gates of Kabul Airport airport after a walk with his brother’s family, who were also ready to evacuate.

Safik said he found Sohail alone and cried on the floor. After saying that the child’s parents were trying to find him inside, he decided to take the child home with his wife and children. Safi has three daughters and said her mother’s greatest wish before she died was to have a son.

At that moment he decided, “I keep this child. If he finds his family, he will give it to me. If not, I will raise him myself,” he told Reuters in an interview in late November.

Safik told Reuters that he had taken her to the doctor for an examination and found the baby immediately in her family. They called the child Mohammad Abed and posted pictures of all the children on his Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 page.

After Reuters published a story about the missing child, some of Sapphi’s neighbors – who had noticed him returning from the airport with a baby a month earlier – found out about the photos and posted comments about where he was in a translated version of the article.

Ahmadi called on relatives in Afghanistan, including his father-in-law, Mohammad Qasem Razawi, a 67-year-old man living in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, to seek Safi and return to the Sohail family.

Razawi said he traveled to the capital for two days and two nights to receive gifts – including a dead sheep, several pounds of nuts and clothing – for Sapphire and his family.

But Safi refused to release Sohail, stressing that he wanted to evacuate Afghanistan with his family. Safi’s brother, who was evacuated to California, said Safi and his family are not waiting for applications to enter the U.S.

The child’s family called for help from the Red Cross, saying it had a role to play in helping people separated by international crises, but said they had received little information from the organization. A spokesman for the Red Cross said he did not comment on individual cases.

Finally, after feeling left out, Razawi contacted local Taliban police to report a kidnapping. Safik told Reuters he had denied the allegations to police and said he was taking care of the baby, not kidnapping him.

The allegation was investigated and dismissed, and the local police commander told Reuters that he had helped organize an agreement, including an agreement signed by both sides with fingerprints. Razawi said the child’s family had finally agreed to pay about 100,000 Afghans ($ 950) for expenses to care for Safiri for five months.

“The baby’s grandfather complained and we found Hamid and according to the evidence we had, we got to know the baby,” Hamid Malang, the main driver of the local police station area, said. “With the agreement of both parties, the baby will be handed over to the grandfather,” he said on Saturday.

In front of the police, and in the midst of many tears, the baby was finally returned to his relatives.

Razawi said Safi and her family were devastated by the loss of Sohail. “Hamid and his wife were crying, I was crying too, but I made sure they were young, Allah will give you a male child. Not one, but several. I thanked them both for saving the child from the airport,” Razawi said. .

The child’s parents told Reuters they were happy to see the reunion via video chat with their own eyes.

“There are celebrations, dances, songs,” Razawi said. “It’s really like a wedding.”

Now Ahmadi and his wife and other children, who were able to leave the military base in early December and relocate to an apartment in Michigan, are expected to bring Sohail to the United States soon.

“We have to return the baby to his mother and father. This is my only responsibility,” the grandfather said. “My wish is to return to them.”