« Those women that are marching pass [the first lady] at this moment should know that the best way to celebrate the 8th of March is boycott the parade to force the authorities not to necessarily give back my baby, but to put an end to the traffic of babies in public hospitals». This the outcry of an inconsolable mother to press men last march 8th as women celebrated International Women’s Day in pump and pageantry the world over.
For more than half a year, she has been deprived of her baby-a baby which she has never had the time to hold in her arms-because stolen from her a few hours after she came into to the world.Its been 7 months of anguish, anger, and grief that Vanessa Tchatchou, has gone through and her ordeal seems not getting closer to an end any soon.
Vanessa Tchatchou is this 17 years old Cameroonian girl whose baby was stolen from her on the 20th August 2011 at 2:15 PM,a few hours after been delivered of a healthy and beautiful baby girl at the Yaounde Gyneco-Obstetric and pediatric hospital in Cameroon-she was delivered of her baby at 7h43 minutes on the same day.
A Silence Too Long to Be Innocent.
6 months later and after much speculation on what might had really happened at that hospital, the government finally reacted on this issue on the 2nd of February through its spokesperson; the minister of communication. At this press conference held in Cameroon’s captal city, the minister declared that the culprits had been apprehended and confessed of having buried the child in a Yaounde neighborhood after her sudden death.
The above version of what might have caused the disappearance of Vanessa’s baby was widely seen by Cameroonians as been fake, given that an influential female magistrate was found with a baby girl(which was not visibly hers)-the age of vanessa’s baby- which she claimed was her baby. Suspicion that this magistrate might be the thief of the baby grew because she made so many contradictory statements concerning the baby found in her home in Yaounde. She first claimed she had given birth to the baby and when NGOs and Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) mounted pressure on her for a DNA test to be conducted on the baby she claimed was hers, she first refused and later on said she had adopted the baby a week after she was born.
A DNA test was finally conducted on the baby found at the magistrate’s home and there have been recent claims that the DNA does not correspond with that of the mother whose baby was stolen. This claim is also viewed by Cameroonians as been unfounded as questions concerning the respect of the formalities for the adoption of a child in Cameroon by the magistrate are still been posed . We live in a country were it could take from between a month to one year for permission to adopt a child to be issued by the competent authorities. But, that this magistrate took just a few days to obtain permission to adopt this child raises a lot of questions.
Vanessa:Courageous to the End
The courage demonstrated by Vanessa and her family in the past months, despite the fact that they had been threatened and bundled out of the hospital yet she decided not to leave until her child is found and returned to her, the indifference of the hospital staff and government officials to the suffering of Vanessa and the arrogance of the magistrate has revolted many Cameroonians who have staged a series of activities to demand that Vanessa’s baby be found and returned to her. Students, politicians, Civil Society Organizations(CSOs), and anonymous persons have initiated and/taken part in activities which were all violently dispersed by the government-with arrest of participants been made.
Women support groups and other associations who planned to demonstrate on International Women’s Day to demand that justice be made in this case during the traditional women’s march pass(Mentioned by Vanessa at the beginning of this article) organized all over the country on this day were threatened and taken away from ceremonial grounds. And so ended another March 8th with nothing; nothing at all being done to find and return Vanessa’s baby.
Reactions:Putting the Cart before the Horse
Reacting to this situation last month, the minister of Public Health Dr Mama Fouda issued a decree limiting the number of people who are authorized to accompany a woman to the maternity and putting in place other security measures in hospitals and then on the 9th of March 2009, the director of the hospital Pr Dooh Anderson was sacked and replaced. This in my opinion is not enough. Justice should be done to Vanessa!
Vanessa with support from a number of civil society organizations have sued the Minister of Social affairs Catherine Mbakang Mbock, the director of the hospital Pr Dooh Anderson, and the female magistrate(Caroline Mejang). But given that all these people are very influential and powerful, can justice follow its real course without being distorted by the colleagues, friends, tribesmen, and political friends of these people? Time will tell.
Wake Up Cameroon, Stand Up for your Children’s Plight!
The ‘stolen baby affair’, as this is refered to by the media in Cameroon is a wake up call to the Cameroonian judiciary system which must be exemplary in ruling on this issue as this girl has been unjustly deprived of the fruit of her womb for more half a year now. A human rights abuse has been committed by persons in the highest spheres of this country.
In a country for which the achievement of Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) is seen as key to its emergence, issues that have to do with human rights, the safety of health institutions, the security of goods and persons, and the credibility of its judiciary system are treated as a matter of urgency, with the highest diligence.
Cameroon belongs to Cameroonians and every single Cameroonian deserves to have justice done. Wake up Cameroon!
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