The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police in Arua is holding a 23-year old woman for dumping a newborn baby. The suspect is identified as Faidah Munduru, a resident of Chongoliya cell along the Arua-Nebbi road in Arua city.
Faidah was arrested on Friday evening after she was dragged to Arua Central Police Station by her relatives who demanded to know the whereabouts of the child she had given birth to, two days earlier.
The relatives explained that they became suspicious upon realizing that the pregnancy had disappeared, yet they couldn’t see any baby. The relatives led by two aunties started a search in which they rescued the baby from a nearby bush but insisted that the mother needed to face the law for her actions.
Faidah told the police during interrogation that she decided to dump the child because his father had failed to provide for her and their three children.
Jimmy Anguyo, the Head of the Child and Family Protection Unit in West Nile confirmed the arrest and added that the suspect will be charged upon completion of police investigations.
According to Christine Driciru, the head of the Child and Family Protection Unit in Arua district, cases of child abandonment, failure to provide for children, child labour, and missing children are on the increase. Three weeks ago, a woman abandoned a one-day-old child at Arua Regional Referral hospital after tricking a fellow patient that she was going to buy soda and asked her to look after her baby.
She went for good and has never been found, and now a Community Development Officer in Arua city has offered to keep and adopt the child.
According to statistics from police in Arua district, nine cases of child abandonment were registered in the month of November and there are fears that this could rise. Similarly, police records indicate that the month of November registered more than 110 cases of Gender-Based Violence.
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