Nursing mother arrested for allegedly inflicting blade wounds on 5-year-old girl

A 35-year-old nursing mother and seamstress has been arrested by the Bole District Police for allegedly inflicting blade wounds and applying pepper on a five-year-old girl in her care at Bole Mempeasem, a suburb of Bole in the Savannah Region.

The disturbing incident was uncovered on the evening of Wednesday, May 20, 2026, when the Assembly Member for Mempeasem Electoral Area, Hassan Abu Peace Brother, discovered the injured child behind his house.

The Assemblyman reportedly located the child’s parents, as the young girl could only refer to her mother as “mama.”

After successfully locating the guardian, he pleaded with her not to harm the child after being told she always beats the child. However, by the following morning, he received a shocking call.

“An old woman told me the woman will beat the child throughout the night because that’s what she usually does so I confronted the woman but she assured me she won’t beat her. Around 6:00am this morning, however, I received a call that she beat the child and even inflicted blade wounds on her before sending her to school.”

Upon receiving the distress call, the Assemblyman immediately followed up at the child’s school and promptly alerted both the police and social welfare authorities.

The suspect, Marijana Alhassan, speaking in her native language at the Bole District Police Station, Waala, denied inflicting blade wounds on the child.

She clarified that the victim is not her biological daughter but her husband’s sister’s child, who comes to stay with the family whenever her mother goes on study leave.

She described the child as highly dependent, saying the girl was unable to eat, undress, or use the toilet on her own — a situation she said placed considerable strain on her.

While she admitted pushing the child away in frustration, she claimed the girl fell onto a mopping stick and sustained the injuries as a result. She said she later dressed the child and sent her to school, only to be summoned by school authorities a short while later and subsequently arrested by police upon her arrival at the school.