4th November: Five alleged criminals, including a witch doctor, were killed by an enraged mob in a township on Sunday, police said, the latest act of vigilantism in a country plagued with high rates of violent crime. Read more here.
3rd November: Three people, including a woman, were arrested from West Bengal’s Birbhum district for allegedly attempting human sacrifice. The incident happened Saturday night in Barunighata village of the district, some 240 km from Kolkata. “We arrested three people, including a woman who practises witchcraft, for attempting human sacrifice,” a police officer said. Read more here.
1st November: Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Mtubatuba High Court on Friday for murder, said KwaZulu-Natal police. Senzo Mkhize and Sphiwe Mkhize killed 71-year-old Velephi Dlamini at Maphumulo in 2005, said Colonel Jay Naicker. The men, aged 31 and 37, stabbed Dlamini to death after accusing him of being involved in witchcraft in the area. Read more here.
30th October: The family of the six-year-old girl who was allegedly poisoned with a cattle dipping chemical for ritual purposes at Silozwi village in Matobo District yesterday held a meeting during which they resolved to engage police so that they launch fresh investigations into the girl’s death. The family is accusing the girl’s aunt, Mrs Prisca Moyo, of playing a part in poisoning Nomagugu. The incident occurred on Sunday last week. Read more here.
27th October: “I have a reputation for killing people with muti.” These were the words of a well-known Eastern Cape sangoma as he testified in a Bhisho High Court trial concerning the 2010 murder of a King William’s Town civil servant. Vuyani Sibanda, aged 42, is accused of conspiring to gun down Nthutuzelo Makeleni in April 2010. Read more here.
26th October: In a spine-chilling incident, two men belonging to a Matobo family in Matabeleland South have been arrested with their female neighbour for allegedly poisoning their six-year-old niece for ritual purposes. Acting police spokesperson for Matabeleland South, Sergeant Nkosilathi Sibanda, said the two men allegedly hired a neighbour to kill their brother’s daughter in return for a beast after indicating that they wanted to use the girl’s body for ritual purposes. Read more here.
26th October: You know how the long-ago witch hunts were stupid and hateful? What a relief those days are over. Except they’re not. In many countries, people are still killed on suspicion of witchcraft. United Nations experts cautioned in 2009 that murders of women and children accused of sorcery were on the rise. Following are just a few of many examples from around the world. Read more here.
27th October: A 40-year-old widow was strangled to death by a villager at Leha village. The dead, Laxmi Devi, was branded a witch by the accused Sudhwa Munda, who confessed his crime. Read more here.
26th October: Four people were arrested in south-eastern Nigeria for the ritual killing of a five-year-old boy whose body was found mutilated, without a head or genitals, before being dumped in a water tank. Read more here.
25th October: Villagers in Assam force 36 people to experience horrific ritual in bargain for their lives. They were made to kneel, hold their ears and drink holy water as part of a process to ‘purify’ them after they were branded witches by villagers. Read more here.
