After separating from her parents who died in an explosion in Kabul’s airport during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, an Afghan child reunited with her siblings and uncle in Qatar on Monday. 

With tears in his eyes, Yar Mohammad Niazi held his niece, Aliza, for the first time after being separated from her for a year-and-a-half.

On August 26, 2021, Aliza’s parents, Mohammad and Samira Niazi, took their children to the airport in Kabul, hoping to escape on one of the evacuation flights following the US withdrawal from the country.

After the blast happened, a 16-year-old carried Aliza, who was only one month old at the time, and got her on to an American-Qatari evacuation flight.

Her siblings were separated and found later by their uncle through social media and Facebook.

But at the time he wasn’t able to find Aliza.

After arriving in Doha the child was taken to Dreama, an orphan care center in the city.

She was named Maryam by the center.

“I am very happy, very happy, I am so happy that I cannot express my feelings. Now that her parents will know that Aliza is reunited with me I can say how happy they would feel, they were waiting for this news, they were waiting to know when Aliza will be reunited with us,” said Yar Mohammad Niazi, Aliza's uncle.

The Foreign Ministry in coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNICEF reached out to find her family.

Once her relatives were found, a DNA kit was sent to Kabul to confirm their relation.

According to an official who was familiar with the case, the process of getting the family passports to bring them to Doha then began.

Aliza’s two sisters, brother, uncle, aunts and cousin all came to Doha to reunite with her on Monday.

The family will be visiting Aliza in the centre for a week to get familiar with each other before starting the process of leaving the country.

They are hoping to head to the US or UK afterwards.

Aliza was the last unaccompanied minor in Qatar before reuniting with her family.