Dogs kill woman, injure baby in Lilongwe

About five vicious dogs on Tuesday morning attacked and killed a woman in Lilongwe’s T/A Njewa area and left a four-month-old baby she had strapped onto her back seriously wounded.

Sources said the incident happened in the morning when the woman (whose identity is yet to be established) was on her way to her maize garden, her husband had gone earlier.

“The dogs attacked her at around 5am and she was found lying in a pool of blood, her baby still strapped onto her back, crying,” explained a witness.

He said when people came to the scene, the vicious dogs, whose owner is yet to be established, had already left the scene.

The woman and the baby were rushed to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) where she was pronounced dead due to loss of blood.

Lilongwe police expressed ignorance of the incident but said they would investigate to establish what happened and who owns the dogs.

KCH spokesperson, Mabel Chinkhata, confirmed the development but did not have full details at hand.

“The woman sustained serious injuries and when they brought her here, we tried to resuscitate her but in vain,” said Chinkhata.

She said a ‘Samaritan’ of foreign origin found people from the community, who included her husband, stranded with the wounded mother and baby and offered to take them to hospital in his vehicle.

The baby, Rebecca Samuel, was immediately treated with anti-rabies and, according to clinician, Anderson Kalombo, she is now safe and in stable condition.

“She was in a very terrible condition when she was brought in. She was bleeding and she couldn’t breathe properly and we had to put her on oxygen. We immediately treated her with anti-rabies vaccine which, luckily, was available,” explained Kalombo.

As of Thursday, the baby was placed in the Children Ward’s High Dependency Unit (HDU) because she had no guardian, according to hospital authorities.

Meanwhile, the baby’s father, Samuel, has pleaded with the hospital to identify someone to help looking after her.

According to Chinkhata, the Samaritan had offered to provide the baby’s basic needs while she was in hospital.

“This man is already providing the baby with milk, diapers and everything and he also helped with all the funeral arrangements for the mother,” she explained.

“However, he has said he can only manage to assist the child but not adopt her, so we have arranged to meet the father after the funeral to chart the way forward,” Chinkhata said. n