By Seleoe Nonyane and Neo Kolane
The public’s emotions are running high amid a recent spate in child disappearances which have seen some minor children turning up dead after being reported missing.
As a result, the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) is appealing to parents and people entrusted with looking after children to be alert and know their whereabouts at all times.
Talking to theReporter this week, LMPS assistant public relations officer ‘Mareabetsoe Mofoka said the fear on the part of the public was highlighted over the past weekend when social media went into a frenzy over the suspected kidnapping of a child in Mohale’s Hoek.
Mofoka disclosed that at least five incidents happened between the months of May and August.
She mentioned the case of a Mafeteng girl who was found dead after community members lynched two people they suspected of having a hand in her disappearance.
Police investigations revealed the girl’s mother had left the kid alone at night when she went on a drinking spree, only to find her missing when she finally got home in the morning.
Police found signs of rape and strangling.
In another case, the LMPS found a four-year old who had gone missing, dead in a toilet pit in Botha-Bothe.
Mofoka said the boy lived at a boarding school under the guardianship of caretakers who only realised he was missing when it was bed time.
She noted that investigations showed that there was a crack on the child’s skull and suspects that this was done deliberately.
In another incident, a 12-year-old girl of Khanyane in Leribe was reported missing only to be found alive days later. It emerged she had actually visited her 16-year-old boyfriend at Maputsoe.
According to Mofoka, the couple had met on Facebook and struck up a relationship. She blamed this incident on children accessing social media at an early age unsupervised and unaware of the dangers associated with social media platforms.
Another recent case took place at Ha Mabote in Maseru where a six-year-old boy who went missing was found dead after two days in a trench filled with water near his home.
Mofoka said police were investigating to establish if the child fell into ditch or was thrown in there.
They were also analysing the cases to establish a pattern.
“For the time being, everything points to negligence on the part of parents and guardians.
“We cannot really call this a crisis. It’s just that the incidents happened in a short period of time. It is too early to conclude that the children had been kidnapped,” she added.
She however, acknowledged that the occurrences had indeed caused fear and panic as evidenced by the swift reaction by community members who spread the word when they saw a child entering a Toyota Fortuner in the company of four adult males in Mohale’s Hoek.
“It later emerged that this was not an act of child trafficking, as the child was actually travelling with her father and was not in any form of danger,” she said.
The Children’s Protection and Welfare Act of 2011 states that the rights of children, responsibilities of parents and the State are: giving the child identity, the right to grow up in a loving and caring environment, to education and health, social activities, the right to opinion, to be protected from exploitation labour and many more.
