Newborn baby dumped into a river at Manso Tontokrom

Correspondence from Ashanti Region

Residents of Manso Tontokrom in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region were thrown into a state of shock after discovering that a newborn baby had been dumped into a river. The female child which is about a day old was found in a river called Asuofu.

Kafagyin, an eyewitness who narrated the incident to GhanaWeb said the whole incident came to light after a lady who stays near the river heard the cry of a baby.

He adds that the woman who had gone to urinate heard deep colic from the riverside but thought it was something else.

"She said she woke up around 4:00 am dawn to urinate, and upon going near the river, she heard the strange sound. Suspecting it to dangerous animal hunting other smaller animals, she ran quickly back to her room", he said.

Kafagyin further told GhanaWeb that the woman kept on hearing the sound until 3:00 PM when she blew an alarm over the strange noise.

"We went to the scene with some people wielding guns and machetes to hunt that particular animal. To our dismay, we got to know that it was a human being (newborn child) that was partially hanging on the river with its other parts touching the water".

According to him, some residents who rushed to the scene came with cutlasses and guns because the place was known to be a safe hiding for some dangerous animals like pythons, crocodiles, and other snakes.

He further revealed that the weeds and other bush ropes covering the river, saved the child from falling into the river.

"But for the intervention of the bush ropes and other weeds that were covering the river, the child would have been dead by now". He said, that even though part of the child's body had touched the water, that wasn't something to cause its death.

The Assembly Member for the area, Mark Amponsah said the child has since been admitted to the At. Martin's Hospital at Agroesum.

He, however, commended the nurses at the Tontokrom CHPS Compound for initially taking good care of the child before its transfer to the Agroesum hospital.

According to him, all efforts to trace the child's mother have proved futile.

"We've been visiting house to house, announced it at the information center to find out if there could be any suspicious mother, but we couldn't find anyone as such".

He further revealed that the case has been reported and taken up by the police, and social welfare.

Revealing the current condition of the child, Mark Amponsah said the baby is doing well.