Nduta (Tanzania): a newborn narrowly escapes death

A newborn baby was thrown into a latrine by their mother on Monday at the Nduta refugee camp in Tanzania. The neighbors who rescued them were alerted by their cries. The child’s mother does not deny the facts admitting rather to the police that she wanted, “unfortunately to get rid of a problem”.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The young woman was impregnated by a married man.

“As a result, the child’s father found himself doubly stressed by exile and family problems. So, he chose to register for repatriation with his legal household, without notifying the girl he had impregnated who only found out two weeks later,” explains a relative of the girl.

Not knowing how to take care of a child alone, the single mother-to-be decided to get rid of the newborn who was subsequently saved thanks to their cries.

“How can we explain that the cries of a barely born child could reach us after being thrown into a latrine. It’s a miracle from God,” say neighbors who affirm that they had already begun to “suspect and closely follow the young woman given her recent attitude which did not bode well.”

For the moment, the baby is doing well and is being monitored at the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) hospital.

“Her mother was arrested by the police and she is kept in the hospital room to breastfeed the baby under the watchful eye of a police officer,” we learn from medical sources.

Refugees are asking Tanzania and the UNHCR to suspend the “forced” repatriation plan announced for December 2024 because, they regret, it is starting to produce harmful consequences.

“Some swear to commit suicide, there are more departures to other countries bordering Tanzania, family dislocations, these women who end up murdering their own children, etc., all of this is the responsibility of the UNHCR which failed in its mission to protect refugees,” they explain.

Nduta is the large Burundian refugee camp in Tanzania with more than 60,000 people.

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A Burundian refugee prepares food for her children in the Nduta camp in Tanzania (SOS Médias Burundi).