ZAMBIA Police Service spokesperson Esther Katongo says they have not received any record of an increase in the number of missing children, contrary to social media reports.

A number of posts of missing children continue to trend on social media, with many people questioning what the causes could be.

In an interview, Katongo, however, said no information had reached the police on what is seen as an increase in the number of missing children across the country.

“Some people will just come out and say something, which we don’t have information on as police and we don’t even know how to approach the issue. I started yesterday receiving calls on the same. So, how to approach… I don’t even know where to start from because we don’t have those concerns as police. You will find that when children go missing, maybe they go playing or they miss their way. At the end of the day, they will find their way home,” said Katongo.

“So, what are they telling parents to those children? Unless they are saying when they go missing, they are never found. If they are never found, where are those families, which were not even seen in the media coming out to say, ‘ine mwana wanga ana soba’ for so long? So, we don’t have that information and those things which they are posting on social media to say, ‘this child is missing,’ some of that information is not even reaching the police. When they find their children or missing person, they are not even coming back to social media to say, ‘no, thank very much; we have found this person; those things will still remain on social media.”