“Where Is Hawa?” 26 Days On, No Charges and No Officers in Wanhassa, Family Says

Published: August 7, 2026

WANHASSA, Lofa County — A 2-year-old girl has been missing from this town for 26 days, and the two women who last had her in their care are reporting to a police station twice a day without being charged, while her family says no officer has yet come to Wanhassa to look for her.

Hawa Alihagee was reported missing on Saturday, July 11. The Liberia National Police in Kolahun said the two women are not in detention but must sign in every morning and evening, that officers have been deployed to Bycellahun, and that the investigation is active. No charges have been filed.

“Up to today, we have not seen any police officers come to assist in finding my niece,” said Mohammed Cooper, Hawa’s maternal uncle.

The account of the day she vanished comes from the town chief. He said Hawa’s mother, Mama Alihagee, left early that morning for her rice farm and left the child with Massa Abraham, a longtime friend and a mother of twins who had regularly minded Hawa when the parents were away.

While the mother was on the farm, her co-wife, Malusu Kanneh, came to Abraham’s house and asked to take Hawa to plait her hair. Abraham agreed. Neighbors saw the handover, and it is the last confirmed sighting of the child with an adult.

The mother returned that afternoon and was told the co-wife had taken the girl. She asked Abraham to bring the child back at once. Abraham went to Kanneh’s house and came back with a different account.

According to the town chief, Kanneh said she had returned the child to Abraham at about 4 p.m., right after plaiting her hair. Abraham said she never received her, and that all she heard was the co-wife calling from a distance while she was cooking. That was when the family understood Hawa was gone.

Both women were taken to the Kolahun Police Station for questioning.

More than 200 residents have searched the forest and nearby villages without result. On Aug. 1, the Wanhassa District Youth Council visited the town to urge residents to keep searching.

The case was first handled by local authorities in Wanhassa, then sent to the magistrate court in Voinjama and later to Kolahun.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Liberia National Police.