A couple torn apart when they fled for their lives from Nigeria have been reunited in Bradford.

Ahmed Kareem and his wife Zainab (pictured with their children) were brought back together by the Red Cross after six months apart.

The next day Zainab gave birth to their second child.

They had to escape from Nigeria after Ahmed, a Muslim, secretly married, Zainab, a Christian. Zainab, 29, who converted to Islam, was told by her family that they would not rest until she was dead.

Ahmed, 30, a member of the Ododuo People's Congress opposed to the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, was slashed in an attack because of his political beliefs and was in hospital for two months.

Zainab, 29, pregnant with their second child, fled to friends with her son Gaffar, four, after her brothers told her that they would kill her child.

Terrified, she and her son were smuggled across the border to Togo and then flew to England.

Zainab, who worked as a hairdresser, said: "It was very frightening.

"Gaffar was crying through the whole journey and I didn't know where I was going or what I was doing. I had given up hope of ever seeing my husband again."

When she arrived in England, Zainab spent time in London before being housed in Shipley.

Her husband, not knowing where his wife and family were, also managed to get to a flight to London after fleeing Nigeria and was told by a friend to go to Doncaster. There he met a fellow Nigerian who told him about Red Cross tracing service.

Zainab said: "I got a phone call from someone in Nigeria saying that Ahmed was in England but I was so frightened. I immediately thought I was being set up and that someone was trying to trick me."

However, through the tracing service the couple were able to make contact and Ahmed was taken to Bradford where they were reunited. A day later their baby daughter was born. They named her Afeezt Comfort.

Zainab said: "It was very, very emotional. I didn't believe it until I saw him. It was so wonderful to see him when I thought I never would.

"Everyone has been so kind and friendly. Gaffar is happy at school and we have made friends. It is so good to live somewhere where the doors are not being kicked in and where people are not screaming that they are going to kill you."

Kathryn Ashworth, tracing and message manager at the Red Cross said: "It is a most extraordinary story. The family are now living in Bradford and have already made friends with other Nigerians and are settling in well in their new environment."

Barbara King, volunteer tracing and message co-ordinator South Yorkshire at the Red Cross, said: "I'm pretty certain this is probably one of the fastest and most successful tracings and indeed family reunions that our UK office colleagues have been involved with."

Zainab has now enrolled on a computer course and Ahmed, who worked as a carpenter, is hoping to complete his education.

The couple, who live in Manningham and applying for permanent residency, believe they would have been killed if they had stayed in Nigeria because of religious tensions sweeping the country.

Ahmed said: "There have always been tensions between Muslims and Christians.

"My father is an imam (religious leader of mosque). I fell in love with my wife as soon as I saw her, I didn't know she was Christian but even though my wife converted to Islam my father was not happy. Her brothers also threatened to kill her.

"The sad thing is that it is so common in Nigeria. If they say they are going to kill then they do it and no-one can stop or do anything."