An Afghan baby boy who went missing in November after he was handed to US troops over a wall at Kabul’s airport amid the chaotic evacuation has been reunited with his family, according to a report.
Sohail Ahmadi, who was two months old when he disappeared Aug. 19, was reunited with his relatives in Kabul, Reuters reported Saturday.
The baby’s father, former US embassy guard Mirza Ali Ahmadi, his wife Suraya and the couple’s four other children entered the Kabul airport shortly after the handoff as thousands fled Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban, but weren’t able to find Sohail.
After the outlet published a story in November about Ahmadi, the baby was found with Hamid Safi, a 29-year-old taxi driver who lives in Kabul, who had found the infant in the airport and took him home to raise the child.
Safi initially refused to hand over the child.
“I am keeping this baby. If his family is found, I will give him to them,” he told Reuters in November. “If not, I will raise him myself.”
But on Saturday, after weeks of negotiations and help from the Red Cross — and an arrest by the Taliban for kidnapping — Safi finally relented, giving the child to his relieved grandfather and other relatives in Kabul, according to Reuters.
Images of children being passed over the airport fence were widely circulated during the final days of the 20-year war, which President Joe Biden opted to end.