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Crime Reporter

Police have launched a manhunt for a 24-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby boy at her house before dumping the toddler at Budiriro Poly Clinic on Sunday midnight where she had been admitted to, as baby dumping and infanticide cases increase.

Joyce Chinyama is reported to have given birth on Saturday at her house in Budiriro before she was later escorted by three women to the clinic where she was admitted.

The offence was discovered around midnight by some nurses who were on duty.

They were informed by another patient that there was a baby crying, but she had failed to locate the mother.

Investigations revealed that Chinyama had used a chair to escape through a window of the maternity ward. She disappeared with the maternity and baby cards.

National police spokesperson Assistant commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident.

“The ZRP is appealing for information that may lead to the arrest of Joyce Chinyama (24) who dumped a new born baby boy on October 17, 2021 at Budiriro Poly Clinic in Harare where she was admitted,” he said.

The incident comes after police are still investigating another case of baby dumping which occurred at Mbare Musika in Harare, on October 4 at 1500 hours, where an unknown woman boarded an Inter Africa bus before asking a fellow passenger aged 33 to keep her baby who was approximately two weeks old.

The woman did not return to take the baby leading to a police report being lodged.

Police took the baby to Sally Mugabe Hospital for further management.

Meanwhile, police in Dzivarasekwa are also investigating a case of concealment of birth in which a foetus was found on top of litter at a dumping site in Tynwald South, Harare.

No arrests have since been made.

In a related incident, police in Harare are investigating circumstances surrounding a case of infanticide in which a body of a male foetus was found dumped in a drain and wrapped in a sack at Block 1 Matapi Flats, Mbare.

“Police in Harare are also investigating a case of unlawful termination of pregnancy in which a foetus was found laid on a tissue paper wrapped with a red T-shirt in a maize field in Warren Park D, on October 5, 2021 at around 0700 hrs.

In June, police in Jotsholo in Matabeleland North arrested a 34-year-old woman for allegedly dumping her newly-born baby.

The woman was alleged to have buried the baby in sand with some of its limbs exposed leading to its discovery.

The infant’s body which was in its advanced stage of decomposition was discovered buried in sand with the skull and hands slightly exposed, near Mahusekwa River on 14 July 2021.