A 20-year-old woman named Hawa has been arrested in Gbamgbato after she was found with a newborn baby who went missing from the Bo Government Hospital last week.

The baby, just three days old at the time of the disappearance, was discovered by the Community Health Officer (CHO) in charge of the Gbamgbato Town Clinic. The CHO, after a brief check, handed Hawa over to the Sierra Leone Police for further investigation.

The case has been trending across the country. People have been following it closely on both social media and the news. Several hospital workers who were on duty during the incident at Bo Government Hospital are already in police custody.

According to CHO Shireff, the child was found after one of his staff members heard a baby crying inside Hawa’s house. The baby was being fed water, not breast milk, which raised red flags. The clinic staff called in the CHO, who carried out basic checks and confirmed that Hawa had not recently given birth.

After being questioned, Hawa confessed to taking the child. She said her sister, who lives in Bo, had given birth at home but lost her baby. Hawa herself had lost her own baby shortly before the incident and was admitted to the maternity ward at Bo Government Hospital. Hawa’s sister then asked a nurse at the hospital to help get a baby. According to Hawa, the nurse brought the baby to them after arrangements were made, and her sister paid the nurse NLe 2,000.

Hawa explained that she took the baby from Bo to Gbamgbato, pretending the child was hers. She told her husband and mother-in-law that she had delivered safely. Both believed her because she had recently been pregnant.

 

Hawa and her husband have now been moved to the Regional Police Headquarters in Bo for further questioning. Police say investigations are ongoing to locate the nurse and others who may have been involved.

This latest incident follows a similar one reported from the Cottage Hospital in Freetown, where a reward of NLe 100,000 was offered for information leading to a missing child.

People across Sierra Leone are calling for tighter security at hospitals and better ways to protect newborns in public health centers.