Winneba: Stepmother pours hot water on 3-year-old girl’s private part

The child is in critical condition at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba.

A three-year-old girl is battling for her life after her stepmother allegedly poured hot water on her private parts as punishment for bedwetting. The disturbing incident happened in Winneba, Central Region, and has sparked calls for swift justice.

According to the child’s mother, the girl had been taken from Swedru to Winneba by her father to spend the school vacation with him. She alleged that the stepmother, identified only as Akaima, a Liberian national, committed the abuse after the child urinated in bed.

“After picking her, I realised she couldn’t walk properly. When I examined her, I saw the injuries. She told me her stepmother poured hot water on her for wetting her bed,” the mother recounted in an interview with Citi News.

Doctors at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba say the girl’s injuries are severe and will require complex medical procedures. The medical team has placed her under intensive care while efforts continue to save her life.

Child rights NGO, Challenging Heights, has stepped in to support the victim’s family with medical expenses and is demanding accountability. Its Mother and Child Rescue Unit has called for the immediate arrest of both the stepmother and the child’s father.

Programmes Manager of the NGO, Enock Dery Paafu, said, “We are expecting DOVVSU to arrest the perpetrator and even the father, who supervised this act, with immediate effect.”

In a press release, the organisation also appealed to the government to strengthen child protection agencies, including the Department of Social Welfare, the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service.

The NGO stressed that safeguarding children’s rights and welfare must be a national priority to prevent such abuses.