WINDHOEK - An 18-year-old girl arrested for dumping her lifeless baby in front of her shack in Greenwell Matongo earlier this month has been granted bail.

The accused, Feliscia Ndevapewa Ruben, 18, was granted bail in the amount of N$1000 yesterday when she made her first appearance in Katutura Magistrate’s Court. The court however did not impose any bail conditions on Ruben.

Ruben was supposed to make her first appearance before Magistrate Namwenyo Shikalepo on June 10, however she was hospitalised and her case was carried out in her absence. The prosecution is charging the 18-year-old with a count of concealment of birth.

According to police reports, Ruben gave birth alone in their shack and dumped the baby a few meters in front of the shack. It is suspected that the baby hit its head on the floor during birth, as there were blood spots in the one-bedroom shack that she shares with her uncle and two siblings.

It is suspected the teenager gave birth by herself after her uncle went to work and her siblings to school. It is further alleged the girl after giving birth, soaked the bloody blanket in the water outside the shack in the process of cleaning up the bloody room.

The teenage girl arrived in Namibia at the end of May from Onehoni village in Angola. 
On June 7, the police had to whisk the girl away from an angry mob that wanted to lynch her. The angry mob wanted to break into the shack in which the girl was hiding for her safety. Magistrate Shikalepo postponed the matter to October 15 for further police investigations and to give Ruben ample time to acquire legal representation.