yes I noted the exboyfriend from the article -- in the past I thought he was her ex-husband.
Me too.
as per your comments -- you could be spot on as per this quotation.....just getting your young kids safe is a priority as there is a huge human trafficking issue for women and children
"Due to an inability to provide care for all family members, some Somalis willingly surrender custody of their children to people with whom they share family relations and clan linkages; some of these children may become victims of forced labor or sex trafficking....
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192369.htm
The ''convenient little white lie'' of your mother is dead...most likely served to get the kids to safety. It was noble of the 15 yr old on one hand to try and find his mom when he discovered she was actually alive.
From dad's statement in last DM article, appears (to me) that he was with son for part of time in Ethiopia.
Current laws in Somalis re custody
http://www.law.emory.edu/ifl/legal/Somalia.htm
I checked out rights in Somalia vis a vis custody and the laws there indicate that a male child stays with this mother until the age of 10 and again it can be revisited by the courts to allow the child to stay with his mother until the age of 18 ....
If ct proceeding re son's custody was held in Somalia, okay, agreed.
But what if ct proceeding had been in Ethiopia?
"mother entitled to custody of male children until age of 10 and female children until age of 15, with court empowered to extend custody until age 18"
UNICEF laws also are supported by Somalia too
http://www.unicef.org/somalia/cpp_5434.html
"The new law aims to achieve justice for children by introducing provisions protecting the rights of children in legal proceedings"
If I recall correctly the mother fled Somalia and is in a safe place now in Ethiopia - could he not just visit her and return to USA for his own peace of mind
See my comment above re dad (imo) fled Somalia and having been w son & mom in Ethiopia.