Todd Adam Baker, a 44-year-old American citizen, disappeared in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif 10 days ago, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
A 44-year-old American citizen, Todd Adam Baker, has been missing since 3:00 p.m. on Friday, July 17, in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan. Informed sources told me that Baker, who was born in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, had been working in Afghanistan for about a decade.
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| Todd Adam Baker |
According to the sources, Taliban security personnel raided Baker's residence, detained him, and took him away. However, as of the publication of this report, no Taliban institution or official has responded to inquiries from Baker's friends and relatives seeking information about his fate, nor has any Taliban authority acknowledged responsibility for his detention.
Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Baker was engaged in business activities in Mazar-i-Sharif and managed a company called Adam Baker Consulting Services. He had lived in the city's Zeraat neighborhood since at least 2017. Baker initially lived there with his family, but after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, his family left Afghanistan for Türkiye, while he continued traveling between Afghanistan and abroad to manage his business activities.
The sources also said that the disappearance of the American citizen has been reported to the U.S. Embassy for Afghanistan, which operates from Qatar. It remains unclear whether U.S. officials have been in contact with the Taliban regarding his case.
Todd Adam Baker also worked with the International Assistance Mission (IAM), one of the oldest international non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan. Established in Kabul in 1966, IAM has worked in healthcare, eye care, mental health, education, rural development, and rehabilitation across the country.
Registered as a non-profit organization in Geneva, Switzerland, IAM is also officially licensed to operate in Afghanistan. It employs more than 300 Afghan staff members and several international volunteer specialists. The organization says it provides services without discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation. During its nearly six decades of work in Afghanistan, IAM has repeatedly been targeted. In 2010, ten of its staff members were killed in Badakhshan Province. In 2023, the Taliban detained 18 IAM employees in Ghor Province. At the time, informed sources in Ghor told me that the Taliban had arrested them on accusations of promoting Christianity and later released them after receiving money in exchange for each detainee.
Sources in Mazar-i-Sharif also told me that Baker was detained on similar allegations of promoting Christianity, and that there has been no information about his condition or place of detention during the past 10 days. According to the sources, Baker lost contact with his friends and family at around 3:00 p.m. on July 17, and Taliban officials have made no public comment about his fate since then. Although Taliban authorities had searched his residence in the Zeraat neighborhood several times since 2021, Baker had continued to travel freely between Afghanistan and the United States until his disappearance.
Previously, U.S. officials, including Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, have traveled to Afghanistan several times and, in meetings with Taliban officials, called for the unconditional release of American citizens detained in the country.
This is an English translation of my report, originally published by Independent Persian.
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