Mother and child reunion

Amina Ibrahim, center, holds 5-year-old daughter Mumtaz, left, and 6-year-old son Mohammed Bare at John Glenn Columbus International Airport after the boy arrived from Africa as a refugee Thursday night.

kisses before he ran into her arms.

Six-year-old Mohammed Bare arrived at John Glenn Columbus International Airport shortly before 11: 30 p.m. Thursday. As soon as he saw his mother and one of his sisters, he ran toward them, yelling "mama."

The reunion was a long time coming, with Mohammed having lived half a world away from his family — first in Uganda, then Kenya — for the past three years while they've been in Columbus.

The two were separated in Africa when Mohammed's father took him on a trip while she was pregnant and didn't bring the boy back to her as promised. She came to the United States in May 2015, and for the longest time, Ibrahim thought her son would never join her and his three sisters — 2-year-old Mishtaq, 5-year-old Mumtaz and 18- year- old Faiza — in America.

Refugees come to the country legally after a lengthy screening process

by the U.S. government, fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. Ibrahim and her family are among about 40,000 Somali refugees living in Columbus.

"I was thinking I'd become an American citizen and go join him" in Africa, Ibrahim said in Somali through a translator in August. She would have had to wait 11 months at that point before becoming eligible for citizenship.