More than 800 people were killed in and around the city of Aro, accused of being involved in witchcraft against their neighbors
Nairobi. Ugandan military forces operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) received an order to put an end to the "witch hunt" that has been going on for the past few weeks in the northern city of Ezor. More than 800 people were killed in and around the city, accused of being involved in witchcraft against their neighbors.
The representative of the Ugandan army, Phineas Katirima, told the "France-Press" news agency that Ugandan forces captured 80 soldiers of the Congolese army suspected of carrying out the murders. In other reports, it was stated that the number of captured "witch hunters" reaches 150. According to the suspicion, the killers extorted confessions from their victims through torture and after killing them they dissected their bodies. About two hundred people
who feared for their lives found refuge in a Ugandan military camp.
Ugandan forces have been fighting alongside the rebels in the Congo for several years. The witch hunt gives Uganda an excuse to delay the withdrawal of its army from the region, and to enter deeper into the country's territory. Uganda seeks to prevent two rebel factions in the organization "Front for the Liberation of the Congo" from joining the operations, and to station its soldiers about a hundred kilometers
South of the area where the massacre is taking place.
One of the people involved in the killings, the head of the village of Obo Sudara who is currently in custody, told the Ugandan newspaper "New Vision": "We asked the residents to vote for suspects of witchcraft, they were required to stop the witchcraft and vote for their colleagues, and then the crowd started killing." In large parts of Africa it is still customary to persecute those suspected of witchcraft. Unfortunately, diseases, deaths, or poor harvests are often attributed to witchcraft, and in recent years killings on this background have increased in Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya.
In Ghana, two elderly women accused of being responsible for the death of a man with meningitis were murdered. In Kenya, an elderly man was lynched after being suspected of witchcraft, and in Tanzania, three witchcraft suspects were massacred following the disappearance of several children.
The situation in Tanzania is the worst in East Africa. According to data provided by the Dar es Salaam police, about 20 elderly women are murdered on charges of witchcraft every month in the Shinyanga area of southern Lake Victoria. An angry mob usually sets fire to their houses at night or murders them in their sleep. "The superstitions are too deeply rooted," accepted the police chief.
But recently women have begun to show resistance. In the Volta region of Ghana, 80-year-old Janet Tibo launched legal proceedings against the village council of elders after she was forced to pay a fine for involvement in sorcerers and was banned from seeing her children. If successful it will be an important victory for many elderly people in Ghana.
