Avesta Yousuf’s mother speaks to Rudaw during her daughter’s burial ceremony on December 15, 2025, along with a photo of Avesta. Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Twenty-seven-year-old Kurdish woman Avesta Yousuf was laid to rest on Monday, months after she went missing in April when she fell into a river in Erbil. Kurdish authorities recovered her body late Sunday, bringing an end to a search that lasted over 250 days and was marked by anguish.
“Thanks be to God a thousand times. We never lost hope that we would find her one day. We just kept praying and pleading with God,” her father, Yousuf, told Rudaw.
“I sent my son and my wife [to Mecca] to perform the [Islamic] Umrah pilgrimage and asked them to pray for our daughter. Within 24 hours of their prayers, Avesta was found,” he added.
Avesta, a resident of Erbil, had gone on a family picnic to Mergasor district, north of Erbil, on April 5. While there, her brother fell into a nearby river, and she fell in while trying to rescue him, according to family members.
Her mother told Rudaw, “I kept praying and crying, asking God to bring her back to us, even if it was only her bones. I prayed out loud in the Prophet’s Mosque during Umrah, asking God to return her to us, even if only her bones.”
Avesta’s body was found on a bank of the Great Zab River near Harir district, north of Erbil, some 119 kilometers from where she fell.
Her father previously told Rudaw that she “was found wearing the same clothes seen in the last known photograph of Avesta taken on the day of the accident.”
Her uncle noted that the family has not yet received DNA confirmation, which may take a few days. “Blood samples were collected from Avesta’s parents and sent to the lab. We were sure it was her based on the clothes and the necklace, so we decided to proceed [with the burial],” he said.
Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw confirmed the recovery on Sunday, following a forensic medical examination.
A joint team from Erbil Health, Forensic Medicine, Civil Defense, and Crime Evidence departments had been tasked with retrieving the body “in a scientific manner,” the Civil Defense Directorate -an affiliate of the Kurdistan Region’s interior ministry - said Sunday.
“The body was transported to Erbil for examination, DNA testing, and official identification,” the Directorate added.
The recovery of Avesta’s body marks the end of a 253-day search that gripped her family and the entire Kurdistan Region in sadness.
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