A newborn baby - Photo credit: VOA

Police in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State have arrested a woman accused of stealing two newborn babies in Aweil and fleeing to Western Bahr el Ghazal State on Monday.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Madut Ngong Aleu, the police spokesperson in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, the woman, identified as Hawa Karinga Hassen, reportedly stole two babies aged 19 days and 18 days in Aweil before fleeing to Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal State.

Lieutenant Colonel Aleu said the suspect, a resident of Wau, tricked two different mothers in Aweil, saying she runs an organisation that supports breastfeeding mothers.

She reportedly convinced the mothers to go and take their pictures at a photo studio to be used for processing documents while she stayed behind with the babies.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Aleu, she then took the babies on a boda and fled to Wau, where she was arrested and detained.

Lieutenant Colonel Aleu spoke to Eye Radio this morning.

“What happened on 16th Dec is that a woman named Hawa Karinga Boy Hassen, from Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal, came to Aweil for her own purposes. She met two women and told them she has an organization for helping and teaching breastfeeding women.”he explains.

He added: “She convinced the women and took two children, aged 19 days and 18 days. She told the women to go to the market to have their documents processed while she stayed with the children at a tea place in Ayoy Market in Aweil. When the women left, she immediately fled with the two children on a motorcycle to Wau.”

Police sent vehicles to Wau to return the babies, and investigations have been launched to prosecute the suspect.

“The state authorities sent vehicles to Wau, arrested the woman, and returned the two abducted children to their mothers. Investigations are currently taking place in Aweil,” he said.