Infanticide in Rwanda: the silent tragedy

Right after birth, Oscar was put in a sack and dumped by his mother. It will never be known if Oscar’s mother intended on killing her child, but because of this, Oscar, now a teenager at Noel Orphanage in Gisenyi, is mentally slower than many of his friends and mute as well.“He cannot speak and I think he is also mentally disturbed. He is not okay,” said Didier Rutagengwa, volunteer and former child at Noel Orphanage, and also the Rwandan representative for the orphanage’s parent organisation, The Point Foundation in the UK. However, Rutagengwa said Oscar’s situation, although rare, is not isolated. The number of infanticides and attempted infanticides is high in Rwanda, authorities say, where those who survive face many mental challenges, but also where mothers are unaware of the consequences of their actions.“Confronted with desperation, their only option is just to eliminate the innocent baby,” said Supt. Theos Badege, Rwanda National Police spokesperson. “It is unbelievable for a mother to give birth and kill her own baby. Even one single case is too much.”This year alone, there have been 15 cases of infanticide in Rwanda, while in 2011 there were 33. On top of this are the attempted cases of infanticide, for which numbers are not available, and also those that go undetected. Although one case is too many, Badege said statistically the number is still high given Rwanda’s population.“Globally, I think it is ignorance; meaning young women are not aware of the legal aspects and the government responsibilities for families,” he said. “If they are confronted with abandonment from their male partners, they think they don’t have any possibility to get assistance or for the baby to be catered for. Probably they think by killing or getting rid of the newborn is the best thing.”The last case of infanticide occurred on May 2, where two women were charged with killing a newborn in Gasabo district. Jeanne Nzamukosha, 26, and Jeanne Icyoribera, 43, are charged with killing the newborn belonging to the latter. It was the ex-boyfriend of Nzamukosha who became suspicious and alerted police. This case is a microcosm of the situation many women are in when they commit infanticide. “They are usually unwed, young women who have been abandoned by their partners,” Badege said. Some are also high school students, concerned about getting kicked out of school if they have a child. Most of the pregnancies are unwanted to begin with. However, this isn’t the only outcome of desperation from unwanted pregnancies. There are countless number of cases of mothers who dump their newborns, an act that can be considered infanticide if the mother had the intent of killing the child.“If she doesn’t want to kill the baby, she will just leave it on the street,” said Rutagengwa.These sorts of cases are somewhat commonplace at Gisimba Memorial Centre in Nyamirambo in Kigali. Three days ago, they received an infant dropped in the street and brought to the Centre by Police.“We don’t know the name of the mother or the name of the father. It’s the police that brought them here. They don’t have an identity, of their name, of their age. A child has a right to know their name, age and where they’ve come from,” said Damas Mutezintare Gisimba, legal representative for the Gisimba Memorial Centre. “There are many children who are abandoned and then found by the police and local authorities.”This act of abandoning the infant is still a crime, considered, if the child dies, involuntary murder or negligence. However, even if the infants survive, the resulting mental and physical problems are prevalent, including psychological problems, health issues and mental issues.“Children abandoned in the streets have many health problems because of how they were abandoned,” said Mutezintare Gisimba. “If you grow up without an identity, can you even imagine? Who am I?”Badege said the solution is education and imparting families and young women with information about safe sex and the options available to them if they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Many women who encounter this issue feel so distressed that they think that killing is their only option, he said, but they shouldn’t forget about the legal system that gets fathers to take responsibility for a child, family support, orphanages and other organisations. “Even if they are single mothers and not even married, they don’t have enough means to cater for the baby, they can seek assistance in their families, because our cultural values still has this commitment to assist family,” he said.“In this era of gender promotion, we want to give equal opportunity to women and men and avoid these obstacles.”

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Infanticide in Rwanda: the silent tragedy