Parents of a one-month-old baby, Khan||an Kaesie, who died three years ago, are pleading with health authorities to find his remains.

Khan||an died at ||Nhoma Settlement in Otjozondjupa's Tsumkwe Constituency.

Evelien Slanger gave birth to a baby boy in 2021 while six months pregnant. It was a premature birth, and she says she used traditional San medicines to treat the baby.

According to Slanger, the baby grew and gained weight, and the boy was visibly healthy as the days progressed.

"When the child was now one month old, he did not look like a child born at six months; he was too big because we were taking care of him very well; he was weaned off the breast milk, and we also mixed soft pap with milk; the child was very healthy."

But one morning in early March of 2021, Slanger and her partner woke up to find their baby boy dead.

Slanger had no idea what the cause of death was, and the police picked up the body from the secluded settlement about nine hours after the death, and a post-mortem was quickly done, which concluded that Slanger's son died of pneumonia.

However, she did not receive the body of her child. She can no longer remember the number of times she has travelled to the mortuary at the Mangetti clinic.

Since 2021, she has been going to ask for the remains of her little one.

Her visit to the clinic on Wednesday was no different; the medical staff labelled her as an angry and a drama queen.

"When I talk to the nurses, they say I am angry. Doctors and police, please give me my child so that I can burry him. I just want my child."

The medical staff at the clinic allowed her to go to the mortuary and view some of the unmarked bodies, but her hopes were torn as she could not identify her son.

"I am just thinking about what is wrong; when I look at it, I feel like the government is unfair to me; other people got their kids but I did not get mine. I am pleading, dear government, what are you thinking of me? Other people buried their children; all I am asking is for the government to help me find my child."

Upon our enquiries, the Ministry of Health and Social Services said it has traced the remains of the baby boy to the Gam Clinic Mortuary, although some of the bodies in the custody of the Ministry at the clinic are in a decomposed state. 

Walter Kamaya, the Ministry's spokesperson, has thus invited the mother to visit the mortuary on Monday to identify the body.