Afghan baby lost in hasty Kabul evacuation reunites with family
Jan 10, 2022
Kabul [Afghanistan], January 10 : An Afghan boy who went missing during the hasty US-led evacuation from Kabul in August has been reunited with his family.
Matthew Moore, reporting for DW News said that the boy's parents were unable to find him after a split-second decision to hand him to a soldier amid chaos at Kabul Airport on August 19, and they ended up leaving for the US without him.
The lost baby Sohail Ahmadi, was just two months old when he went missing on August 19 as thousands of people rushed to leave Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban.
Ahmadi was located in Kabul where a taxi driver named Hamed Safi had found him in the airport and took him home to raise as his own.
"I found him at the airport laying down in a very bad way. I looked around and showed this child to many people, but I couldn't find anyone related to him," said Hamed.
Farima Safi (Hamed Safi's wife) raised this boy as he was her own, except Sohail Ahmady isn't hers. He was separated from his parents during a melee at Kabul Airport, said Moore.
"I love this child a lot, but we cannot be his father and mother. He has to live with his parents, said Farima Safi.
"Like many babies, Sohail was thrust to the hands of soldiers amid frantic scenes," added Moore.
Ahmadi was reunited with his grandfather, Mohammad Qasem Razawi with the help of an international campaign to locate the child, reported Moore.
After more than seven weeks of negotiations and pleas, and ultimately brief detention by Taliban police, Safi finally handed the child back to his jubilant grandfather and other relatives still in Kabul, reported CNN.
They said they would now seek to have him reunited with his parents and siblings who were evacuated months ago to the United States.
During the tumultuous Afghan evacuation over the summer, Mirza Ali Ahmadi, the boy's father who had worked as a security guard at the US embassy, and his wife Suraya feared their son would get crushed in the crowd as they neared the airport gates en route to a flight to the United States, reported CNN.
The case highlights the plight of many parents separated from their children during the hasty evacuation effort and withdrawal of US forces from the country after a 20-year war.
