Kurdistan
Saifulla Hussein reunites with his family at Sulaimani International Airport on February 19, 2025. Photo: Rudaw
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Saifulla Hussein, whose whereabouts were unknown for more than 20 years, returned safely to the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday after he was released from a Kenyan jail.
“I am incredibly happy to be home and in Kurdistan again. It is like a rebirth for me. What’s sweeter than reuniting with your family,” he told Rudaw on his arrival at Sulaimani International Airport.
Originally from Saruchawa on the outskirts of Ranya, Hussein fled the Kurdistan Region in 1996 during the Kurdish civil war. He traveled through Kenya before going on to the United Kingdom, which returned him to the African country. Kenyan authorities sentenced him to 20 years in prison for unknown reasons in 2003 and he lost contact with his family until mid-December 2024, after his release from jail.
Asked what he missed during his confinement in Kenya, Hussein said: “I missed my homeland a lot. I missed my parents. I missed all the people in Saruchawa and Kurdistan.”
Kenya’s ambassador to Iraq shared information about Hussein with Sulaimani’s passport office, which immediately reached out to Hussein’s family.
“After we received the first thread of the case, we steadfastly tried to prepare the required travel documents and flight ticket for him so that he could reunite with his family,” Colonel Salar Abdullah, the director of the passport office, told Rudaw.
“It is totally a new day for him and his family,” he added.
Hunar Hussein, Hussein’s brother, told Rudaw that the director of Sulaimani’s passport office informed them of their brother’s imprisonment in Kenya. They were later able to speak to him on the phone.
Hussein is engaged to an African woman and has a son.
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