A Nigerian woman, Lister Mathew Osas, has announced the successful reunion of her mother with three children who were allegedly taken to Cameroon by their father more than three decades ago, bringing an emotional end to a search that captured widespread attention across social media.
Osas shared the breakthrough in an emotional video posted on Instagram on Sunday, revealing that she made contact with her long-lost siblings just two days after launching a public appeal for information about their whereabouts.
According to her, she spent nearly three hours speaking with her siblings on the phone, describing the experience as both emotional and unexpectedly natural despite their decades-long separation.
Having grown up as an only child, Osas said discovering that she has two sisters and a brother still feels like a dream.
She also disclosed that her mother has now discovered she is a grandmother to 11 children, describing the revelation as another joyful moment for the reunited family.
Osas expressed gratitude to everyone who shared the family’s appeal, saying the support from bloggers, media organisations and members of the public in both Nigeria and Cameroon made the reunion possible.
She recalled that her mother was overwhelmed with emotion after learning that her missing children were alive, adding that both of them spent hours in tears of joy.
The reunion comes only days after Osas appealed to the public for help in locating her mother’s three children—Antonia Dibong Mandeng, Maxwell Dibong Mandeng and Victoria Dibong Mandeng—who were allegedly taken to Cameroon from Kaduna by their father, Alfred Dibong Mandeng, in the 1990s.
