Baby Gloria Naphtali has finally been reunited with her family after she was stolen at a saloon in Juba on Wednesday 21st December 2022. (Photo Credit: Charles Wote/Eye Radio).

The family of the stolen baby has commended the public and the government for working tirelessly to trace and recover their one-month-old daughter.   

Baby Gloria Naphtali was reunited with her family on Saturday afternoon – hours after the police arrested the prime suspect and recovered the child in Yirol, Lakes State.

On Wednesday, a woman identified only as Mammy allegedly kidnapped two siblings from a saloon at around 10 am from Custom market in Juba.

According to the family, the suspect – who resided in Munuki residential area, had called Winnie Naphtali – the mother of the missing children to accompany her to the saloon.

The 27-year-old mother then carried her children along, upon request of the unfamiliar family friend.

However, Mammy disappeared with 4-year-old Kiden Naphtali and one-month-old Gloria Naphtali.

The suspect later abandoned the older toddler at a shop in Custom Market and walked away with one-month-old Gloria Naphtali.

But, she was arrested in Yirol County by the Criminal Investigation Department of the police the following day.

The child was also reunited with her parents by the special protection unit of the police in Juba over the weekend.

Speaking to Eye Radio shortly after receiving the child on Saturday, her father, Naphtali Bandula appreciated those who worked hard to ensure his daughter is recovered.

“I want thank God and the government of South Sudan, the joint operation who have worked hard to recover the baby after four days,” he said to Eye Radio.

“Since they went missing on 21^st, reaching 22^nd we found the one of four years and the other one was taken up to Yirol and the government followed it up until they found the baby. I want to thank everybody who have contributed for the recovery of my baby.”

Bandula adds that he will proceed ahead with the case to ensure justice prevail.

“What I can say to the side of the woman who stole the baby is that mistake is a mistake and if the government found you doing such thing, they will not leave you just like that so procedures is ongoing now.”

“While at the police station, they asked me either I will leave the case on go ahead and I told them if they finish the investigation, we will go to court.”

For her part, Winnie Moriba Naphtali – the mother of the child says although the baby was introduced to artificial feeding by the suspect, she has managed to bring the baby back to breast-milk.

“I have found that the health of my child has reduced a little bit because that woman [suspect] was giving her baby milk and I don’t know which kind of milk that is, but I have returned my baby to breast-milk.”

The arrest

Information that the family conferred to this media outlet indicate that, after the father of the suspect heard the news on Eye Radio, he suspected his daughter and called the husband to confirm if she arrived in Yirol with a small baby.

The suspect’s husband then found out and handed her to the authority.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the National Police service advised the public to report any suspicious case of child abduction to the police.

Daniel Justin believes that timely reporting helps the police to respond quickly.

“They have to be very careful and timely information to the Police helps a lot because when the mother lost the child she immediately reports this to the police.”

“So, the sooner you report the soon we react and then the result will be for our benefit.”

Rampant child abduction

Child abduction and trafficking are commonly reported, mostly during communal conflicts in some areas across the country.

According to media reports, the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Jonglei, Eastern Equatoria, and parts of Central Equatoria have been experiencing the vice of child abductions.

A June 2017 academic research conducted by a government official revealed that at least 115 children were abducted from the Lirya, Lokiliri, and Lowoi areas of defunct Jubek State between 1989 and 2017.

Christopher Sebit Arkangelo, a local Government Administrator at former Jubek State said that out of those children abducted, 22 have been recovered, while 93 children are still missing.

This year, authorities in Jonglei State said local youth in the area recovered eight of the ten people abducted on November 17, but a woman and a child were found dead.

“All of them were recovered with the exception of one woman and one child who was killed by the abductors,” Jonglei State Information Minister John Samuel Manyoun told Eye Radio.

In its report, the UN Mission in South Sudan in April 2021 indicates that women and children were abducted for exchange as bride price in the form of cattle.

The agency estimated that 686 women and children were abducted during the extreme violence between different communities in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area between January and August 2020.

Human trafficking in South Sudan

The latest incident of human trafficking on South Sudan soil is the September 2022 rescue of nine foreign nationals from traffickers by Northern Bahr el Ghazal State police.

The victims were being smuggled through the state – when the police intercepted and arrested their captors along the border with Sudan.

South Sudan has not yet made significant progress in eliminating its threatening human trafficking problem, according to a 2021 report by the Borgen Project.

The organization said cartels of traffickers cut across North, Central and East Africa and leave East African migrants and those transiting through South Sudan vulnerable to abduction, sex trafficking, and forced labor.

It also added that both domestic and foreign victims are at risk of human traffickers exploiting them in South Sudan.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the situation has caused the nation to remain in the Tier 3 category, meaning it does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

So far, South Sudan has not endorsed the UN Convention against Transnational Crime and its Protocols.

In September 2022, the Minister of Interior, Mahmoud Solomon said they have asked to be given more time to study the convention before signing it.

“This document needs more consultation and decisions need to be taken by all the actors,” said Interior Minister General Mahmoud Solomon.

The convention was adopted by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 2000 and came into force on 29 September 2003.

So far, 185 UN member-states have signed the Convention, but 9 UN member-states including South Sudan, DR Congo, Somalia, Solomon Islands, and Iran, among others are not a party to the document.

The South Sudan Interior Minister said they were not okay with some provisions in the document and need more time to study the proposal.