News

USA: 2011 murder case described as “voodoo ritual” goes to trial

A Kansas man accused of beheading another man with a guitar string three years ago and keeping his head has pleaded not guilty to premeditated first-degree murder.

James Paul Harris, 29, is accused of garroting 49-year-old James Gerety, of Topeka, in March or April of 2011 and keeping Gerety’s head for some sort of religious reason, prosecutors allege.

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USA: Ritual animal abuse cases raise concern about human sacrifices

A spate of bizarre ritual animal killings has left Washington Police bracing themselves for a budding killer in the making. A strange collection of animals were killed and slaughtered in a manner which criminologists are concerned is a precursor to human abuse or sacrifice.

The abuse of animals automatically instigates a whole raft of other investigations in U.S. states and is a predictor of other more sinister abuse on children and adults and is a hallmark of the early crime records of serial killers, according to criminologists.

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Kenya: Legalizing witchcraft – Kilifi County Assembly to introduce legislation to govern the sector

Kilifi County Assembly is seeking to introduce a motion that will lead to the recognition of traditional healers and sorcerers by licensing them. Elina Mbaru, the chair of the Children, Sports, Culture and Social services committee said that a board was formed whose mandate was to vet and scrutinize sorcerers and medicinemen before they were issued work permits.

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Nigeria: Child witch – NGO reunites 18 with parents

Eighteen out of the 40 branded witches and stigmatised children rescued from streets in Akwa Ibom State by Way to the Nation Children Centre, Eket, have been successfully reunited with their parents, the home management has said.

Briefing newsmen during a visit of the state House of Assembly member representing Uruefong Oruko Local Government Area, Bassey Etienam, the Deputy Director of the NGO, Mrs. Dianabasi Akanimo, said to ensure that the reunited children were not thrown back into the streets, regular visits were being carried out till the families are able to re-establish strong bond with such children.

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Ghana: Central University student killed over ‘juju’

The Abura Dunkwa District Police Command has arrested Mallam Sulemanu Mumuni aka Alhaji Tanko and his accomplice, Jude Essel Dadzie aka Kweku Apaah for allegedly killing a 23-year-old Central University student, Joseph Nicolas Danquah, for not paying the compensation for the “juju” they gave him at Ayiase near Assin Jakai in the Assin South District of the Central Region.

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Kenya: Before you go to court, ask the witch doctor: Kenya’s top judge

A frustrated chief justice told Kenyans yesterday  that even witch doctors could help them resolve their disputes without taking each other to the overburdened courts.

Mr Willy Mutunga was appointed in 2011 to reform a judiciary widely seen as in the pay of the political elite and to cut red tape, at a time when many Kenyans had lost confidence in the courts.

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Sierra Leone: JUJU Witch Attack on Sylvia Blyden’s House

A huge 4-horned item dropped out of thin air at Dr. Sylvia Blyden’s home around 11pm last Wednesday.  President of Sierra Leone Traditional Healers Association, Dr. Sulaiman Kabba, was one of those called. He arrived and dismantled the object. It had horns, cowrie shells (jaygay), pussy-cat skin, monkey hair,  mirror glasses, red blood & so much more. According to our information, Dr. Blyden who is a fervent practising Christian lives in a house consecrated with the Holy Spirit and this Holy Ghost power is what repelled the invisible witch juju invaders. The Holy Spirit forced this invading evil object from its hidden metaphysical form, making it to be visible to all that night.   

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Nepal: Woman battered on witchcraft charge

It seems that our society will take years, if not decades, to get rid of one of its most deplorable mindsets of accusing marginalized women of witchcraft.

In yet another horrible incident, a middle-aged widow from Jagadipur at Niglihawa VDC-9 of Kapilvastu district has been beaten up on the charge of casting a spell on her neighbor. 

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UK: Urgent action needed to fight ‘witch hunt’

A Lancaster organisation is calling for urgent UN action on witchcraft accusations and persecution across the world.

Gary Foxcroft, executive director of the Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network (WHRIN), said that “many thousands” of women and children are likely to suffer horrific human rights violations each year due to the practice of accusing them of witchcraft.

Women and children are also being killed for body parts or being offered as human sacrifices, according to a report launched this week.

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Morocco: Wife of Former Minister Allegedly Buys a Hyena For Witchcraft

A woman said to be the wife of a former Moroccan minister was recently arrested in Dakhla, in southern Morocco, as she was negotiating the price of a hyena with a huntsman, according to daily Akhbar Al Yaoum.

Accompanied by her housemaid, the woman met with a huntsman who was supposed to sell her a dead hyena for MAD 110,000. Police found the sum of money in the suspect’s car, according to the same source.

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