{UAH} Ritual killers scare Ugandans
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12:31 PM |
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Two days after Milly and Taiba disappeared from their home near Uganda's capital Kampala in October 2016, their bodies were found in a nearby swamp, with their tongues removed through cuts made in their throats.
Milly, 7, and her 15-year-old brother were not killed by ordinary criminals.
They had been attacked by people working for practitioners of magic in search of human body parts for use in rituals.
Such killings are on the rise in the east African country, where 19 children were killed for blood, tissue or body parts between May and November 2016, said Shelin Kasozi from Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM), a Christian organization fighting the practice.
There had been 20 killings during all of 2015, according to KCM.
Police records show an increase from one killing in 2006 to 13 killings in 2014. But the real figures are believed to be much higher.
Such killings are also reported in Tanzania, Nigeria, Swaziland, Liberia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, according to a 2014 report by the organization KidsRights and Leiden University.
The killings of Milly and Taiba followed that of Kevin, 8, who disappeared after school in April 2016. His body was found in a Kampala garden with flesh cut from his neck.
In many such cases, parts were removed when the children were still alive "in a ceremonial ritual of sacrifice," the KidsRights report said.
Few of the victims survive. In Kyampisi village north-east of the capital, KCM has given therapy to dozens of them since 2006.
"These children are usually in terrible conditions … [They] shout … in nightmares and have hallucinations," Kasozi said.
The eight children currently staying in the former residential building, with swings on the yard, include Robert, 8. He was found unconscious in a pool of blood at his grandmother's home east of Kampala in June 2013.
"We believe Robert's attackers took a lot of blood from him," Kasozi says. He may also have been thrown to the ground, which left him crippled with a spine injury.
Even worse off is Hope, 10, whose tongue was partly cut off at the age of 18 months. She was then kept tied up for eight months, for an unknown reason, which left her unable to walk and with a brain injury that only allows her to communicate through noises.
Despite identifying as Christians – the vast majority – or Muslims, 80 per cent of Ugandans consult traditional healers, anthropologist Epajjar Ojulu from Uganda Christian University estimates.
Healers shake bells or sing to make ancestral spirits speak through them, healer Ssempija Batale said. "The spirit prescribes the medicine or actions the client should take to cure diseases or get money," he added.
The cures often involve herbal treatments. Chickens, goats or sheep may also be sacrificed. If none of that works, a tiny minority of unethical healers may propose "big blood."
"A human body is an embodiment of a spirit and human body parts are believed to be the most powerful ingredients in magic," Ojulu said.
A tongue is believed to silence enemies, genitals to cure impotence or barrenness. Limbs, eyes, teeth, fingers and hearts are also in demand. The body parts can be worn, buried or eaten in rituals which cost their alleged beneficiaries a small fortune.
Adults are also killed for body parts, though the numbers are not known. But the vast majority of victims are children, because they are easier targets and because they are seen as "pure," according to Ojulu and KidsRights.
Shortly before the 2016 elections, six children were killed, according to Kasozi, who says their body parts may have been wanted to help politicians secure seats in parliament.
The overwhelming majority of Uganda's estimated 3 million traditional healers condemn such practices. "Human sacrifice is not part of our culture," healer Swaiby Lugayizi said. KidsRights said the practice has only been introduced in recent times.
It is not clear why killings for body parts appear to have increased. Social workers say awareness campaigns have encouraged people to report more such cases.
Unscrupulous healers meanwhile market such rituals to impoverished people desperate for wealth and to an expanding middle class trying to gain more prosperity, analysts said.
Ugandan police created an anti-human-sacrifice taskforce in 2009, but KidsRights said it lacks resources and manpower.
Two people charged with a ritual killing were handed the death penalty – usually not carried out in Uganda – in 2016, and one person a life sentence in 2012.
But prosecutions are rare, because potential witnesses fear retribution, says Kasozi, who calls for specific legislation against such killings and for better educational levels to combat the practice.
Her organization is meanwhile trying to give survivors "motherly love," toys and exercise "to make them feel like other children," while not allowing contact with strangers which could reawaken traumas.
"Counsellors … try to make them gain trust in human beings," Kasozi said.(dpa/
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