Category Archives: child

Albino boy abducted from his home in Mozambique (2018 report)

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Picture not related to the case reported

Published: July 11, 2018
By: News24

A 10-year-old albino boy was reportedly kidnapped from his home in the early hours of Monday in northern Mozambique.

According to BBC, the boy’s father, Pires Ernesto, alleged that the kidnappers dug a hole in the wall of his house in the city of Lichinga in Niassa province and went straight to the bedroom where his four children were sleeping. 

Ernesto said that only his albino son was abducted. 

Police said the matter was under investigation.

A report by AFP said that albinos in Mozambique were often hunted for their body parts, which were used as charms and magical potions in the belief that they brought wealth and good luck.

More than 100 attacks against albinos in Mozambique have been reported since 2014, according to the United Nations. (bold letter type and italics added by the webmaster FVDK)

Albino boy, 10, abducted from his home in Mozambique – report

Related article:
How an albino boy was snatched from his bedroom in Niassa, Mozambique

DW / Hole made in the bedroom wall where the kidnapped child was sleeping

Published: July 11, 2018
By DW (Deutsche Welle)

A 10-year-old albino child was abducted at dawn on Monday (July 9) at his parents’ residence in the city of Lichinga. This is the first abduction of an albino this year in Niassa. The case is already in the hands of the criminal investigation police SERNIC.

Just after the country had reported a year free of abductions or murder of albinos, kidnappers infiltrated the boy’s home through a hole in the wall of the room where the child slept with his siblings.

Pires Ernesto, father of the minor, who was working on a night shift at the time of the abduction,  sadly told DW :” My brother Carlito called to tell me that my son had disappeared , when I asked him how it happened, he said they had made a hole in the wall and had taken the child out of the room, and said that they were informing the neighbours about what happened, and when I returned to the house at 1 a.m. I did not actually find the child. ”

According to BBC, Pires Ernesto, alleged that the kidnappers dug a hole in the wall of his house in the city of Lichinga in Niassa province and went straight to the bedroom where his four children were sleeping. Ernesto said that only his albino son was abducted.

The kidnapping of albinos that have occurred in Mozambique are mostly related to superstitious beliefs. It is believed that certain body parts of albinos possess magic powers and, because of this, many end up being killed or mutilated.

Resurgence of abduction causes concern

Trindade Guilherme, a representative of the association ‘Amor à Vida’ [Love of Life] in Niassa province, views the re-occurrence of albino kidnappings as a great concern and calls upon the authorities to be swifter in investigations so that the perpetrators are found and punished.

“It is sad, that there were a lot of kidnappings in the past and suddenly it was over, but this morning in the ‘Niassa I’ neighbourhood there was a kidnapping and we became worried again. We ask the police to re-double their investigative efforts so that we can live with more tranquility, ” he says.

Trindade Guilherme (DW/M. David)
Trindade Guilherme

After the incident was reported to the police by the minor’s relatives, the authorities went to the scene, said Alves Mate, a spokesman for the Niassa corporation. He assured that the police are investigating the matter, but did not give further details.

The spokesman for the police in Niassa said:”As soon as the police received the information about this incident, the utmost attention was paid to the case and it was immediately referred to SERNIC (National Criminal Investigation Service), since this is a matter that is not only for the responsibility of the PRM”,

Investigation

Alves Mate reminded us that “the investigations take a while but, at this moment, our police are already working together with SERNIC to solve this abduction case.”

In Mozambique, there are laws to protect people with albinism. However, authorities often fail to catch the kidnappers. There are few cases reported to the police and, on the other hand, police does not have all the necessary resources to hunt down the criminals.

Source: How an albino boy was snatched from his bedroom in Niassa, Mozambique

Portuguese version:
Moçambique: Recomeçam ações contra albinos no Niassa

Crianças albinas. Foto simbólica
  • Data 09.07.2018
  • Autoria Manuel David (Lichinga)

Uma criança albina foi raptada na madrugada desta segunda-feira (09.07.) na residência dos seus pais na cidade de Lichinga. Trata-se do primeiro rapto de um albino este ano no Niassa. O caso já está nas mãos do SERNIC.

Pouco depois de o país assinalar um ano sem raptos ou assassinatos de albinos, raptores infiltraram-se na casa dos pais do menino por um buraco feito na parede do quarto onde o menor dormia juntamente com outros irmãos.

Triste, Pires Ernesto, pai do menor, conta: “Quando cheguei do serviço, por volta de uma hora, o meu irmão Carlito chamou-me para me dizer que o meu filho tinha desaparecido e perguntei-lhe como é que isso tinha acontecido, pelo que me respondeu furaram a parede e tiraram a criança do quarto. Disse ainda que estavam a informar aos vizinhos [sobre o sucedido]. Quando regressei à casa na verdade não encontrei a criança”.

Angriff auf Albinos in Niassa (DW/M. David)
Buraco feito na parede do quarto onde o menor dormia

De recordar que os raptos de albinos que têm ocorrido em Moçambique estão na sua maioria relacionados com superstições. Acredita-se que determinadas partes do corpo dos albinos possuem poderes mágicos e por causa disso muitos acabam por ser mortos ou mutilados.

Ressurgimento de raptos causa preocupação

Trindade Guilherme, representante da associação Amor à Vida na província do Niassa, encara o ressurgimento dos raptos de albinos com uma grande preocupação e apela as autoridades para serem mais céleres nas investigações para que os autores sejam encontrados e punidos.

“É triste, anteriormente ocorriam muitos raptos e de repente tudo acabou. Já pensávamos que situações do género tinham acabado definitivamente. Mas esta manhã no Bairro de Niassa I houve um rapto e voltamos a ficar preocupados. Pedimos a polícia para que redobre os esforços de investigação para que se possa viver com mais tranquilidade”, lamenta.

Trindade Guilherme (DW/M. David)
Trindade Guilherme

Depois da ocorrência comunicada à polícia pelos familiares do menor, as autoridades deslocaram-se ao local como disse Alves Mate, porta-voz da corporação Niassa. Ele garantiu que a polícia está a investigar o assunto, mas não avançou detalhes.

“Logo que a Polícia recebeu a informação sobre esta ocorrência dedicou a máxima atenção ao caso que foi imediatamente encaminhado para o SERNIC (Serviço Nacional de Investigação Criminal),  visto tratar-se de um assunto que não é da competência da Polícia”, esclarece o porta-voz da Polícia em Niassa.

Investigação

Alves Mate lembra que “a investigação demora um certo tempo, mas neste momento a nossa Polícia já está a trabalhar juntamente com o SERNIC para desvendar mais este rapto.”

Em Moçambique, há leis que protegem as pessoas com albinismo. Mas, muitas vezes, as autoridades não conseguem apanhar os raptores. Por um lado, há poucas denúncias e faltam meios à Polícia.

Shown is a screenshot. The original article contains a video / audio (FVDK)

LEIA MAIS (= Read more)

Moçambique não regista há um ano casos de rapto ou assassinato de albinos

Dia Internacional para a Consciencialização do Albinismo, uma data instituída pelas Nações Unidas, celebrada este ano (13.06) sob o lema “brilhando a nossa luz para o Mundo”. (13.06.2018)   

Moçambique: 4 anos depois, rapto de albino continua por esclarecer

Família de albino raptado há quatro anos queixa-se da inércia das autoridades na resolução do caso. Polícia diz que a investigação está agora nas mãos da Procuradoria. (06.06.2018)   

Albinos beneficiam de consultas oftalmolóicas gratuitas, em Moçambique

Cerca de 100 albinos participaram de uma campanha para melhorar a visão e sensibilizar sobre os cuidados com os olhos. Ação foi encerrada este domingo (10.09), em Maputo. (10.09.2017)   

Anistia Internacional denuncia nova onda de ataques a albinos no Malawi

Malawi registou nova onda de assassinatos e ataques dirigidos a pessoas com albinismo nos últimos meses, apoiados por um sistema judicial deficiente, denunciou a Amnistia Internacional (13.06.2017)   

Source: Moçambique: Recomeçam ações contra albinos no Niassa

Mozambique: Arrests over murder of boy with albinism

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People with albinism often face discrimination

Published: May 7, 2019
By: BBC – Jose Tembe – BBC Africa, Maputo

Police in Mozambique say they have arrested two people over the abduction and murder of a 12-year old boy with albinism. 

The suspects confessed to the murder, with one of them saying that they had killed the boy “to extract his bones”. A third suspect is being sought, police said. 

The 12-year-old’s body has been recovered. He was abducted from his home in the Muchelelene locality in northern Nampula province last week.

There has been a spate of killings of people with albinism in parts of southern and East Africa, with their body parts used to make charms and potions by witchdoctors.

In Mozambique, people convicted of kidnapping and killing albinos have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

Source: Mozambique arrests over murder of boy with albinism
Africa Live 6-7 May, 2019 (7:25) as it happened – BBC News
Jose Tembe – BBC Africa, Maputo

Headless corpses raise ritual killing fear in Togo (2007 articles)

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Published: September 21, 2007
By: John Zodzi – Reuters

LOME (Reuters) – Six grisly murders in Togo in which the victims were decapitated and drained of their blood have raised fears of a resurgence of ritual killings ahead of parliamentary elections in the West African state next month. 

The serial killings occurred last weekend in the southern Vo and Lacs prefectures, east of the capital Lome. The victims included a 12-year-old boy and a 63-year-old woman and their severed heads were carried off by the killers. 

The discovery of the headless corpses has shocked Togolese and triggered a wave of speculation that the killings were ritual murders. This is a practice still found in parts of Africa in which people kill to obtain body parts and blood in the belief they will bring social success and political power. 

Police announced the arrest of four suspects, including one from neighboring Benin, the West African home of the ancient Voodoo religion, who confessed to killing the 12-year-old boy. 

Togo holds legislative elections on October 14, and international observers hope they will strengthen the weak grip of democracy in the small former French colony, which like Benin is wedged between Nigeria and Ghana on the Gulf of Guinea. 

In a society where traditional beliefs still have influence, some Togolese saw a link between the killings and the ambitions of aspiring candidates for next month’s polls. 

“Some of these deputies are ready to do anything to keep their seats and you hear that they’re carrying out sacrifices,” said Joel Attigan, a geography student. 

Others saw the murders as linked to a desire for social advancement. 

“There are too many young rich people in Togo these days. These crimes are linked to these kind of people, who sometimes use human sacrifices to obtain their goals,” said Da Mensa, the manager of a bar and restaurant in Lome. 

Togo’s media have joined the feverish debate, blaming shadowy religious sects in Togo and Benin. 

“We are in Africa, and spilled human blood can reveal many things,” the newspaper Le Magnan Libere said, referring to the witchcraft practice of using blood or body parts for divining or influencing the future. 

The police have been cautious about confirming the ritual killing hypothesis. 

But they said the arrested Benin citizen, Roger Kodjo Hounguiya, had confessed that he was working for a fellow countryman, Jean Goudjo, wanted in Benin for grisly murders involving mutilation. 

The European Union, which froze most of its aid to Togo in 1993 citing the poor democratic record of then President Gnassingbe Eyadema, is sending electoral observers to the polls next month. Eyadema died in 2005 and his son is now president.

Source: Headless corpses raise ritual killing fear in Togo

Related article:

‘Gang behind’ Togo’s beheadings

Published: September 28, 2007, 10:34 GMT 11:34 UK 
By: BBC

Togolese police say they are probing what could be a cross-border network of killers after six beheadings in Togo and one in Benin earlier this month.

One of four suspects has admitted he belongs to a gang wanted in Benin for similar crimes, Togolese police say.

The victims were all attacked over a two-day period and their decapitated bodies were drained of blood.

A BBC correspondent says there are fears these are ritual murders for witchcraft purposes ahead of Christmas.

In some traditional practices, human body parts are used in the belief that they make charms more powerful.

According to Togo’s police chief Col Damehane Yark, one of the four suspects in custody has also admitted to killing the youngest victim, a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The BBC’s Edow Godwin in the Togolese capital, Lome, says the killers struck in the southern districts of Vo and Lac, in Maritime province that borders Benin.

At the same time a teenage girl was beheaded in Benin, 65km from the city of Cotonou in similar circumstances.

Source: ‘Gang behind’ Togo’s beheadings

Uganda: Two arrested over murder of 11-year-old pupil

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Police have arrested two people who are accused of killing an eleven-year-old pupil in what is suspected to be a ritual murder to boost their business. Courtesy photo 

Published: November 12, 2018|
By: Patrick Ebong, Daily Monitor Uganda

In Summary

  • The two businessmen who deal in cotton were arrested on Friday evening after it was alleged that they chased the pupil before killing him. They are currently in custody at Kole Central Police Station.
  • North Kyoga regional police spokesman ASP David Ongom Mudong, in a statement on Sunday, said preliminary information reveals that the suspects are both Indian nationals dealing in cotton business at Odokomit in Ojwina division, Lira Municipality. 
  • Mr Mudong said the deceased, while fleeing from the two suspects got entangled in barbed wire and later developed serious injuries but the police were informed and intercepted the suspects who are still under detention at Kole Central Police under file vide CRB 318/2018.

Main Story:

Police have arrested two people who are accused of killing an eleven-year-old pupil in what is suspected to be a ritual murder to boost their business.

Dickens Okello, a primary 5 pupil of Alito Primary School in Alito Sub-county is alleged to have been killed by the two businessmen who reportedly chased him until he was trapped by a barbed wire on Friday evening.

The two businessmen who deal in cotton were arrested on Friday evening after it was alleged that they chased the pupil before killing him. They are currently in custody at Kole Central Police Station.

North Kyoga regional police spokesman ASP David Ongom Mudong, in a statement on Sunday, said preliminary information reveals that the suspects are both Indian nationals dealing in cotton business at Odokomit in Ojwina division, Lira Municipality. 

Mr Mudong said the deceased, while fleeing from the two suspects got entangled in barbed wire and later developed serious injuries but the police were informed and intercepted the suspects who are still under detention at Kole Central Police under file vide CRB 318/2018.

The incident has since attracted a lot of condemnation from the business community in Lira where a big number of Indians operate businesses, with the Prime Minister of Lango Cultural Institution Dr Richard Nam urging police to make sure the matter is investigated to its conclusion and the deceased’s relatives given fair justice.

The chairman of the Indian community in Lango Mr Singh Surjit also asked police to investigate the matter.
“I would like to tell the community if it’s true this thing happened, police should investigate and the suspects must face the law. We are here do business with the people but not to engage in criminal acts,” Mr Surjit told Daily Monitor in an interview on Sunday.

Kole District woman Member of Parliament Ms Judith Alyek Odongo said this unfortunate incident demands for action to be taken to bring to an end the impunity of some foreign nationals against the natives of Lango.
“I call upon different stakeholders to wake up and condemn this while demanding that the two Indians who are being held be investigated and taken to court to face the wrath of the law,” she said.

Source: Two arrested over murder of 11-year-old pupil


Uganda: mother slaughters daughter for ritual purposes, arrested

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Mother slaughters daughter for ritual purposes, arrested

Published: October 30, 2018
By: Ninsiima Julian

KAMPALA- Police in Kampala has Tuesday arrested a woman by names of Harriet Nakalema for allegedly murdering her one and half-year-old daughter by removing her private parts, uterus and intestines.

Nakalema 32 is alleged that on Monday 29, with the help of a housemate Annet Mwagale (42) they slaughtered her biological daughter identified as Vivian Nalunga.

According to police, after committing the heinous act, Nakalema together with Mwagale rushed the deceased to Mulago Casuality Hospital where the doctors confirmed the baby had died due to heavy bleeding.

The deceased was however taken for postmortem which revealed death cause.

According to the postmortem report, the baby’s body was found with missing private parts, uterus and intestines to which a case was opened up at Mulago Casuality Police Post vide SD: REF. 06/29/10/2018.

The hospital management then involved the area police in which the crime was committed leading to the arrest of Harriet Nakalema.

Police detectives recovered intestines upon searching at Nakalema’s home of residence, fitted into the kitchen sink, clothes with blood-soaked in a bucket. However, the private parts and uterus were missing.

Nakalema, however, blamed the devil when asked about the latter, saying that it was the devil that had cut her daughter into pieces.

However, the suspect later apologised to her neighbors and police detectives revealing that she had been assisted by a one Annet Mwagale who was at that time on the run.

Through the intensified search of her accomplices, Police was able to track down and arrest Annet Mwagale and her mother Annet Mulindwa (68) who had gone back to erase any possible evidence at the scene of crime.

Upon questioning, Mwagale told the police that Nakalema had been paid by their sister Rwensisi Angella who now lives in Canada to send her fresh body parts of a young baby for ritual purposes.

Mwagale revealed that they had used a pair of scissors to chop off the private parts of a young baby girl.

The three female suspects are currently detained at Kira Road Police Station on charges of murder contrary to section 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act.

Source: Mother slaughter daughter for ritual purposes, arrested

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Mother arrested over daughter’s murder, police recover intestines from her house

Published: October 30, 2018
By: James Kabengwa

Detectives at Kira Road Police have arrested a 32-year-old housemaid for allegedly killing her 18-month-old daughter by removing her private parts, uterus and intestines.

It is alleged that the girl identified as Vivian Nalunga was killed on October 29, 2018 by her mother with the help of a housemate, 42.

After committing the heinous act, the two women reportedly rushed the deceased to Mulago Casuality Hospital where the doctors confirmed the baby had died due excessive bleeding.

The autopsy report raised questions regarding the cause of Nalunga’s injuries and eventual death.
The autopsy indicated that the baby’s body was found with missing private parts, uterus and intestines. The suspicious doctors then alerted police which arrested the two women.

When the house was searched, detectives recovered intestines, suspected to belong to the deceased, fitted into the kitchen sink, a bucket and clothes soaked with blood.
However, her private parts and uterus were missing.

When asked what had happened to the little girl, the mother reportedly told police that it was the devil that had cut her daughter into pieces.

However the suspect later apologised to her neighbours and police detectives revealing that she had been assisted by her housemate was at that time on the run.

Detectives were able to track down and arrest the alleged accomplice and her mother, 68.
During interrogation, the said accomplice reportedly told detectives that the girl’s mother had been paid by their sister (accomplice’s sister) who lives in Canada to send her fresh body parts of a baby for ritual purposes.

She reportedly told police that they used a pair of scissors to chop off the girl’s body parts.
The three female suspects are currently detained at Kira Road Police Station on charges of murder contrary to section 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act.

Source: Mother arrested over daughter’s murder, police recover intestines from her house

Mother arrested over daughter’s murder, police recover intestines from her house

Nigeria: Lagos ‘madwoman’ caught with human parts, corpses: “I pose as prostitute to get victims”

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‘Madwoman’ – who was not mad after all – Folake Folade (right) and accomplice Emmanuel Gbenga (left)

Published: August 29, 2018, 3:54 am
By: Esther Onyegbula

The ‘madwoman’ who was arrested on Monday with decomposing corpses and other human parts under Cele Nicer Bridge in Ijanikin, Ojo area of Lagos State, has said she, at times, posed as a sex worker to get victims for her human parts business, which she has been operating for nine years.

Preliminary investigation also revealed that the suspect, identified as Folake Folade, was not mad after all. Rather, she was discovered to be the ringleader of a syndicate that sells human parts.

The suspect, who was arrested alongside her accomplice, identified as Emmanuel Gbenga, disclosed that some of her victims were men who she lured from hotels where she posed as a commercial sex worker.

When Vanguard visited the scene yesterday, some youths in the area and security agents were seen combing the tunnel under the bridge for more clues.

One of the residents of the area, Mojisola Kehinde, who claimed to be at the scene when Folake sang like a canary, said: “She opened a can of worms when she was caught.
She said she had been here (Cele Nicer Bridge) for nine years and that her business was to sell human parts to ready buyers.

“She said her customers usually parked on the bridge at night with their vehicles bonnets opened, pretending that their vehicles had one fault or the other, unknown to people that they were waiting to get human parts.

“She said her boys would be beneath the vehicle pretending to be working on the car to douse any suspicion and, in the process, hand over a nylon bag which contained the needed human parts.”

Another resident, Lawrence Oke, also claimed that Folake revealed that “whenever she failed to find preys to meet up with the demands of clients, she would dress up and head straight to any hotel of her choice at night.

“Any man that picks her for the night becomes a prey as he would end up in her den, where his body parts were later harvested and sold off to waiting clients.”

Lawrence also alleged that Folake confessed that she had boys that worked for her.

According to him, “she said once her hands touched someone, the person would lose his senses and follow her sheepishly.

She said her husband came there at times to have sex with her at night.”

The tunnel’s entrance and some things found in it (top).

Bodies in the tunnel

Vanguard gathered that when she was being interrogated by the mob, she allegedly threw her phone into the bush.

While looking for the phone, the mob discovered a tunnel where some decomposing corpses were found.

The recovered bodies included those of a middle-aged man, a baby that was less than three months and a nine-year-old boy said to have been returning from holiday classes. Also recovered inside the tunnel were school uniforms, lunch boxes, schools bags and adult clothes.

Two Ghana-must-go bags of foreign currencies and wads of N1000 notes were also found.

A mechanic, Bamijoko Ayinde, who has a workshop in the area, told Vanguard: “Do you know she was always found with new N1000 note each time she went to buy anything? And she would not collect the balance. We all assumed she was mad.”

At 1p.m. yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police, in charge of Operations, Mohammed Alli, was sighted at the scene in the company of other policemen.

However, Lagos State Police Command condemned the mob action on one of the suspects, who was set ablaze.

Police to probe mob action

Spokesman for the command, Chief Superintendent Chike Oti, confirmed the incidents, including the lynching of the suspects’ accomplice.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, has directed the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ijanikin to cordon off the scene and ensure that the remains found in the tunnel are not tampered with, pending the arrival of police forensic experts.

According to Oti, “the Commissioner said it is regrettable that despite the various town hall meetings he held to sensitise communities in the state to the evil of jungle justice, some people at Olorunshogo community constituted themselves into a mob and took laws into their hands by killing one of the suspects, who might have been very useful in the ongoing investigation, had they handed him over to the Police.

“He warned that anybody found to have participated in the killing of the yet-to-be-identified man, will be arrested and charged for murder to serve as a deterrent to others with penchant for taking the law into their hands.”

Source:
Lagos ‘madwoman’ caught with human parts, corpses: I pose as prostitute to get victims 

Lagos State – Nigeria

Gabon election raises fears of ritual killings (2008)

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Published: April 16, 2008
Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clar NiChonghaile
Antoine Lawson
Reuters

A sorcerer performs a dance in front of a sacred fire in Bitouga, some 600 km from the Gabon capital Libreville, in this September 2007 photo. REUTERS/Antoine Lawson

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – When the body of 13-year-old Ralph Edang N’na was found drained of blood and with gaping wounds in his genitals, chest and neck last month, many in Gabon thought it was politicians who had ordered his killing.

The murder of children and young adults, whose organs are eaten or used to make magical amulets, has increased in recent years in the oil-rich central African nation. Campaigners say some Gabonese politicians use the black magic rituals to boost their chances of winning lucrative government posts.

With elections to local municipal councils due on April 27, many fear a spate of gruesome child murders.

Every week, mutilated bodies are discovered in the capital Libreville, despite police patrols, and streets quickly empty after nightfall. Anxious parents are keeping a close watch around schools to prevent children from being snatched.

“It’s before elections and ministerial reshuffles that the vilest crimes are committed and the capital empties of certain kinds of politicians who go to the interior to carry out witchcraft,” said pastor Francois Bibang, a member of the Association to Fight Ritual Crimes (ALCR).

In ritual killings, which still take place in several African countries, people, often children, are killed to obtain body parts and blood in the belief they will bring social success and political power.

The ALCR says that in February alone there were 12 such killings in Gabon.

“Unfortunately, this practice seems to be spreading again in Gabon,” said Jean-Elvis Ebang Ondo, who founded ALCR after his 12-year-old son was kidnapped, killed and mutilated in 2005.

The government set up a National Observatory for the Rights of Children in November 2006 to implement the U.N. charter on children’s rights, enshrining the right to health, education and protection from abuse.

Gabon, with just 1.6 million people, is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producers but most of its population continue to live in poverty, while members of a rich elite drive shiny new cars along Libreville’s sea front boulevard.

Omar Bongo, the world’s longest-serving president, has ruled the country since 1967 and used the oil funds to weave a web of patronage which has created bitter competition for lucrative political jobs.

Ondo condemned “the silence of the state” and called on residents to “fight off these assassins who sow terror in the heart of Gabonese society”.

After a penal code approved in January omitted any mention of ritual crimes, Ondo called on the government to find out how many people had been killed in this way.

“Spare parts”

But no clear figures exist for how many children and teenagers are slain in ritual killings in Gabon.

The head of an association against ritual crimes, Frederic Ntera Etoua, said 290 killings had occurred since 1986 in the thick jungles of the Ogooue-Ivindo province in the northeast, where Ralph Edang N’na was killed.

“There is a pyramid organization with politicians at its head who pursue the famous ‘spare parts’ then the recruiters who are middle men and then the suppliers and sellers who find the innocent victims,” said Bibang.

Parliamentary speaker Guy Nzouba Ndama opened the latest session of the assembly on March 3 by denouncing ritual crimes by politicians.

So far no politicians have been convicted for involvement in such crimes. An attempt to prosecute a legislator from the oil-rich region of Gamba last year failed after he claimed parliamentary immunity.

Philippe Ndong, a psychology teacher at Libreville university, traces the rise in ritual crimes to 2001.

“As legislative elections approached, mutilated bodies were discovered around the country,” said Ndong. “An 8-year-old girl was snatched in Ndolou department and killed in Mouila. The man allegedly responsible was a candidate to parliament who entered the government after this crime.”

Ndong cites other ritual murders. In 2002, a man in his 20s, Lucien Bigoundou, was killed in the Digoudou forest of central Gabon while on a hunting trip with companions who cut off his genitals and other parts of his body.

In March 2005, the bodies of two 12-year-old boys were washed up on a Libreville beach — one was Ebang Ondo’s son. A month later, six-year-old Warlys Igor Mboumba was found dead in a Libreville gutter, his body drained of blood.

In January 2006, the bodies of three children under four were discovered in the trunk of a car in a private yard.

And last April, two men suspected of sodomizing a 3-year-old boy and draining his blood in a ritual killing were lynched.

“It is up to the government to put a swift end to this impunity or risk seeing a rise in mob justice,” said pastor Emile Ngoua, a member of the ALCR.

Source: Gabon election raises fears of ritual killings
April 16, 2008