Baby Grace’s grave ransacked

Unknown people have tampered with the grave of Baby Grace, the newborn who was buried at the graveyard where she was dumped by her mother on Monday last week.

Health workers at Ekwendeni Mission Hospital tried to save the baby, but she died after four days of fruitless attempts.

In an interview yesterday, the hospital’s principal nursing officer Esther Kawelama, who attributed the death to massive red ants’ bites and harsh weather, said the baby’s grave was found partially open on Sunday.

The nurse, who organised “a befitting burial” for the baby “denied the right to life”, said the nocturnal attempts to dig up the body were detected by a nurse and women who went to bury a newborn who had died at the hospital.

“It’s sad that she died after being dumped by her mother, but the shocking development is that some people invaded the graveyard and tampered with the grave of Baby Grace two days after we buried her,” she said.

Equally shocked was the Reverend Nase Chunga, the hospital’s chaplain who presided over the funeral.

In his report to Ekwendeni Police Unit, he suspects that the nightly attempt to exhume the baby could be the work of unscrupulous people who trade in human parts as more graves were ransacked.

In an interview, Mzuzu Police Station deputy spokesperson Cecilia Mfune confirmed the incident, saying the law enforcement agency deployed a team to inspect the gravesite and no-one has been arrested in connection with the act. n