A two-day-old baby boy has been rescued from a dustbin container at Hangerline, a suburb of Damongo in the West Gonja Municipality, thanks to the alertness of a teenage girl who went to dispose of rubbish.

According to eyewitnesses, the girl heard the baby crying from inside the container and quickly raised an alarm, prompting nearby residents to rush to the scene.

“We were seated here under the tree when a girl ran to us saying that she had gone to throw rubbish in the container and heard a child crying inside,” recounted Mumuni Seidu, an eyewitness.

He said the group rushed to the container and found the baby neatly wrapped in a fertiliser sack, lying inside the metal bin.

“We immediately rescued the boy, and he was still alive and crying. So, we gave him to the nurses at Damongo Town Clinic, but we don’t know the mother,” he added.

The baby was initially taken to the Damongo Town Clinic but has since been transferred to the St. Anne’s Catholic Hospital, where he is receiving care in an incubator.

Sources within the West Gonja Divisional Police Command revealed that the police have gathered significant leads about the possible mother of the infant and have launched a search for her.

This incident adds to a disturbing trend in Damongo. In 2024, two separate cases were reported at Attributu and Alhassan-kura, where newborns were abandoned in a bush and a toilet, both found dead. Earlier in February 2025, a week-old baby girl was dumped inside a toilet facility at Abinga-kura, also with no trace of the mother.

In a related development, a pregnant woman who recently lost her baby at St. Anne’s Catholic Hospital was seen crying and pleading to be given custody of the rescued baby.

Police investigations are ongoing as authorities work to locate the baby’s mother and address the rising cases of infant abandonment in the area.