A Zimbabwe woman who buried her newborn alive has told a court in the east of the country that it was because she already had a 14-month old child and couldn’t afford to keep both, a newspaper is reporting.
Florence Chinyamunguri, 23, dug a hole near a cattle pen in the diamond-rich Marange district last week, placed her baby inside and covered him with soil and grass before leaving him, the Manica Post reports.
No-one saw her do it (her husband and other relatives were at work). But an hour later a cattle herder heard a baby crying near the pen and called for help, according to the newspaper.
The baby died on its way to hospital.
Chinyamunguri was arrested and charged with infanticide.
Said the Manica Post: “In her defence [Chinyamunguri] told the court that she had no other option but to kill her newly-born baby boy as she could not afford to look after him since she had another 14-month-old baby.”
She was ordered to do 350 hours of community service at Marange Clinic.
A woman from the Harare township of Dzivarasekwa township was accused of killing her newborn twins last week after a landlord found the dead babies in a plastic bucket, the Daily News reports.
It’s not clear what has happened to the mother.
News24
