Handed over the fence
Baby was lost at Kabul Airport – and is now back with his family
Kabul, Afghanistan: A US soldier holds a baby in his arms during the chaos at the airport.
© Lance CPL. Nicholas Guevara / Picture Alliance
The situation in Afghanistan worsened dramatically last summer. In the middle of the chaos, a little boy is lost at Kabul airport. After several months he is now reunited with his family.
Kabul in August 2021. The Afghan capital is in a state of emergency. The Taliban have taken the city and finally brought the country back under their control. Thousands of people try desperately to flee and make their way to Hamid Karzai International Airport. There is a dense crowd there.
In the midst of the chaos, the two-month-old Sohail Ahmadi is pressed into the arms of a US soldier over a fence to protect him from the crowd. But once Sohail’s parents are inside the airport, they can no longer find their young son.
After a fruitless search, the father, who worked as a security guard in the US embassy, his wife and their four other children take one of the last evacuation flights to the US. For several months they do not know where their young son is – and whether he is even still alive.
Afghanistan: taxi driver takes baby with him
A Reuters report the search of the family finally sheds light on the darkness. The trail leads to the house of a 29-year-old taxi driver in Kabul in November. The man reports to the news agency that he found Sohail Ahmadi crying alone on the airport floor. After trying in vain to find the baby’s family, he decided to take him home to his wife and raise him as his own son. The two call the infant Mohammad Abed.
When the whereabouts of the lost baby are confirmed, Sohail Ahmadi’s grandfather goes to Kabul to request the return of his grandchild. But the taxi driver initially refuses, as reported by Reuters. Instead, he wants a guarantee that he and his family will also be evacuated to the United States.
Scenes from Kabul airport after the explosion
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Family overjoyed: “It is celebrated, danced, sung”
The negotiations drag on for seven weeks – in the meantime the taxi driver has been arrested. But in the end, the Taliban police arranged an agreement between the two families. On Saturday the baby was finally handed over to his grandfather.
The parents, who now live in the US state of Michigan, are overjoyed after seeing the reunion via video chat. “It is celebrated, danced, sung”, said the grandfather of the News agency. “It really is like a wedding.”
The family now hopes that arrangements will be made quickly so that Sohail can be brought to them in the United States and they are reunited.