News

Uganda: UCC Warns Against Misuse of Airwaves To Promote Witchcraft

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has warned against misuse of airwaves to promote witchcraft. The Executive Director UCC, Mr Godfrey Mutabazi said the warning goes to the broadcasting, telecommunications, film and postal/courier services who host witchdoctors to promote witchcraft.

“The commission has noted with concern that various media houses usually host witch doctors/traditional doctors who engage in discussions that promote witchcraft practice,” Mutabazi said.

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Namibia: Witchcraft disrupts school

Papua New Guinea: How witchcraft impacts health in PNG

When Mary got sick, residents in her remote highland village in Papua New Guinea (PNG) didn’t take her to the doctor, but to a traditional healer with magical powers instead.

“They said a witch had put a curse on me. They had to remove it. Had they not brought me to the nearest health clinic, however, I could have died,” the 45-year old said.

Such stories are not uncommon in PNG, a largely tribal society of over 800 languages where a longstanding traditional belief in witchcraft or “sanguma” as it is known in Tok Pisin, the local language, continues to undermine healthcare in the country.

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Uganda: Called to action in Uganda

She can’t speak or care for herself and survived torture at the hands of witch doctors, but Kate Heroff describes her as “the most joyful little girl with a radiant smile and contagious giggle.”

A missionary in Uganda, Heroff, 23, serves with an organization that sponsors a school and a church, campaigns to end child sacrifice and aids its victims.

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Nigeria: ‘I Entered A Taxi And My Mind Went Blank’: Victim Of Ibadan Ritualists Narrates Ordeal

One of the people found malnourished and near death at an abandoned warehouse in Oyo has spoken out about her ordeal.

She is believed to have been abducted since September 2013. She said:

When asked whether she did not see her captors killing people and selling their parts, she said, “I think such thing happened, but it did not really register because my mind was blank.”

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Liberia: ‘Brutality’

A member of the House of Representatives, Garrison Yealue has been linked to brutality. Representative Yealue of Nimba County Electoral District #4 is said to have mobbed a man accused of ‘witchcraft’ activities in his (Rep. Yealue) hometown of Varyenglay, Nimba County.

India: Tribal couple killed in Jharkhand

An elderly tribal couple was killed by unidentified persons for allegedly practising witchcraft at Kudlum in Khunti district, police said Tuesday.

Jaswa Heren (60) and his wife Basanti (55) were found dead with cut wounds sustained by sharp weapons on their bodies near Bigadon railway gate .

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Sierra Leone: Child sacrifice: Apprentice’s Nick Hewer calls for end to children’s misery in war-torn country

The Apprentice star Nick Hewer has called for Britons to help eradicate child poverty in Sierra Leone. Nick  visited the war-torn country to see for himself the vital work of British charity Street Child.

A shocked Nick, 70, said: “The most terrible thing is how at election time there is a spate of ritual killings when the chief who wants to be elected or some other official goes to the shaman and finds the recipe for success is child sacrifice… in 2014.

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India: Witch hunting still claims lives in Assam

In yet another incident of alleged witch-hunting, three members of a family were burnt to death at Borjhora village on suspicion of practicing witchcraft.

Nigeria: Nigerian police discover ritual killing site, rescue 16

Nigerian police rescued 16 people from an underground dungeon believed to be a ritual killing site, the local newspaper Leadership reported Sunday.

The officers also discovered several decomposing bodies and body parts, hundreds of human skulls, old clothes, photographs and voter cards in the chamber located in a forest near Soka in the western state of Oyo.

Police found pools of blood in a nearby building where the captives were allegedly slaughtered and from where their body parts were sold for medicinal purposes, according to Oyo state police spokeswoman Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor.

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