JEDDAH, 9 February 2007 — A Saudi taxi driver provided police with crucial information to help locate the family of two young boys who were abandoned by their mother in a popular Jeddah restaurant 10 days ago.
The two boys, who were named Abdullah and Saad by local police, have now been identified as Samir, two years old, and Sattam, two months old. Following a media campaign to reunite the youngsters with their family, a taxi driver recognized a picture of the two boys in a local newspaper and informed police about their identity.
The boys’ father, who is in his 60s, lives in Rabigh and has admitted that the children are his. The man had taken a second wife in Jeddah whom he had recently divorced. The couple had married unofficially.
Following the divorce the father had looked after the boys but had returned them to their mother in Jeddah a short while ago. The mother, who is a non-Saudi, said that she was on her own when she left the children at the restaurant and cited various reasons, including domestic problems, lack of money and the absence of the children’s father, for abandoning them. The woman said she had been following newspapers to find out the fate of her children.
Sources say that the children had not been circumcised, indicating that they were not born in a hospital. They received a checkup when they were found at the restaurant and are said to be in a healthy condition.
Ihsan bin Salih Taib, the general manager of Social Affairs in Jeddah, said that they will study the social, psychological and financial status of the family, as soon as the police complete their investigations. The general manager also praised the media for publicizing the story.
Waiters at the restaurant found the two boys after the younger boy fell off a table and began crying.
