Student, 16, accused of killing her baby

Police in Malawi’s old capital, Zomba, on Monday arrested a 16-year-old secondary school student on suspicion that she aborted and killed her baby.

Eastern Region Police spokesperson Thomeck Nyaude in an interview said the Zomba Police Secondary School teenager is suspected to have aborted a six-month-old pregnancy.

The girl, name withheld, is suspected to have taken some traditional medicine to abort the pregnancy, according to a medical report from Zomba Central Hospital.

The girl, Nyaude said, bled heavily and that after the abortion, she allegedly hid the aborted baby in her clothes.

Police said her friends, after noticing her health condition, wanted to help her wash her clothes and they ended up discovering the dead baby wrapped in her clothes. They reported her to school authorities.

Nyaude said police investigations were going on, but the girl remains in custody.