Stolen child re-united with parents

Michella Jackson, a six-month old girl, has been missing for two months, after she was stolen from her home in Rubavu District. But the child was found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before she was re-united with her parents. Two months ago, while in a church, Egidia Musabyemariya, the mother of the child, met a man of Congolese origin who requested to be given a shelter by the couple overnight because he didn’t have a place to sleep. “We accepted to give him shelter but as we went about our routine work the following morning, he monitored our movements and took off with the child,” Musabyemariya spoke through an interpreter, Theoneste Gatera, since she has speech impairment. Both parents of the stolen child can neither speak nor hear. But they informed authorities and a search was mounted that led to the discovery of the child in DRC. “We suspected the Congolese whom we had sheltered and we knew he had taken her to DRC, thankfully the child is here,” Wilson Nsengimana, the father of the child said through Gatera. As luck would have it, when an unidentified man was carrying the baby in a sack after crossing the Gisenyi-Goma border, he was stopped by Congolese authorities after suspicion. “We suspected what the gentleman was carrying in the sack; when we stopped him and checked we found a child in and we arrested him. We then took the child to Mere Immaculalee orphanage,” said The mayor of Rubavu Sheikh Hassan Bahame and his Goma (DRC) counterpart Jean Malihaseme Musanga witnessed the handing over of the child back to her parents last week. Sheikh Bahame applauded the action of the Congolese authorities, urging more cooperation between the two countries. alex.ngarambe@newtimes.co.rw

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Stolen child re-united with parents