<<Print>>

Residents of Abirem in the Ashanti region are in a state of shock after the eighth child of a mentally ill woman died under mysterious circumstances. Thirty-seven-year-old Yaa Adjeiwaa’s seven children had earlier been killed in a similar fashion.

The neighbours have varied interpretation to what they call abnormal with some suggesting that Yaa unconsciously suffocates the children. Others say she starves them because she is unable to provide for them due to her condition. She has lived with epilepsy for more than eight years. A third group points fingers at the children’s grandmother who they accuse of indulging in rituals.

The child to have lived longest among the children died at age three while the one who died shortest was only two-month-old. In the latest incident, Yaa’s mother, Akua Afriyie indicates Yaa suffered a seizure when she had gone to fetch firewood from the bush. Akua narrated that Yaa was feeding the baby porridge when she had a seizure and fell on the baby.

According to a neighbour, he together with others broke into the room to find the lifeless body of the baby. They found the body of the baby wrapped inside a sack.

Neighbours are blaming themselves saying in all the deaths they could have saved the children, but for the resistance of Akua Afriyie. One neighbour said upon hearing that Yaa had delivered again, told her mother was advised to send her to a mental home but she objected.

Akua Afriyie’s conduct has led neighbours accuse her of complicity as she has been facilitating the burial of her grandchildren whose birth she attends to.  Residents say community leaders must intervene by sitting down with Akua because Yaa gets pregnant not long after losing a baby. Yaa Agyeiwaa tells Joy News she can’t tell how her children die. She told Joy News’ Kwasi Debrah she doesn’t know where the child is and that it is her mother who told her the child is dead.

No one knows the father of the children or the men who impregnate Yaa. Residents of the area suspect Akua has been taking money from unnamed men to sleep with her mentally challenged daughter. A resident who claimed she had questioned Yaa about the men who sleep with her said Yaa told her mother (Akua) calls her to sleep with men she doesn’t know immediately after taking her bath.

Neigbours find it strange that a day before the death of her eighth child, Yaa is alleged to have combed the town saying she needed blood and water.