A 10-day-old baby girl was left to die in the early hours of Sunday after suspected highway robbers held the ambulance conveying her from Tumu to Wa in the Upper West Region hostage for nearly two hours.
The ambulance took off just after midnight on Saturday, but armed robbers reportedly attacked the vehicle as it headed from Tumu towards Han in the Sissala East District on its way to the regional hospital in Wa.
The robbers, said to be four in number, kept the new mother, her baby and two others for almost two hours as they harassed them and collected cell phones, cash and some other personal effects.
Police investigations
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Upper West Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Joy Afagbedzi, the baby died before the ambulance finally made the nearly three-hour journey (minus the two hours with the robbers) from Tumu to Wa.
He said the police had started investigations and that information on the incident was still scanty.
Staff of the National Ambulance Service in Wa said the case had since been reported to the police as they shied away from official comments and media attention.
Both the mother of the deceased child and the ambulance driver are said to have been treated and discharged from the regional hospital.