(just some more) Witch Killings

Mexican authorities have arrested a 78-year-old man on charges he killed a woman he believed was a witch who had put a spell on him.
Santiago Iniguez Olivares is accused of bludgeoning Modesta Navarro Nieves and her husband at their home in the mountainous Guadalupe del Cobre community in April 1998, the Michoacan state attorney general's said Thursday. The husband survived.
Olivares had been on the run until recently, when he returned to Guadalupe del Cobre because he thought the 11-year-old murder had been forgotten, the attorney general's office said.
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According to officials, Iniguez Olivares went into the woman's home, accused her of putting a witch's spell on him and started to beat her with a stick. The woman's husband then came home and Iniguez Olivares turned the club on him before fleeing, the attorney general's office said in a release.
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This is the second case in 18 months involving the slaying of someone accused of witchcraft.
Authorities arrested a woman in June 2008 in central Mexico on charges that she had killed another woman for similar reasons, La Voz de Michoacan newspaper said.

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Unknown people last week stormed into a house in Mtapenda village in Muze Ward, Sumbawanga District and killed a couple on allegations that they were engaged in witchcraft activities, police said.
Acting Rukwa Regional Police Commander Jacob Mwaluanda named the victims as Jisena Malingaya (57) and his wife Ngolo Lugata (40).
Mr Mwaluanda said the attackers armed with machetes kicked down the front door of their house and hacked the couple to death at dawn on Thursday.
"The killings are associated with witchcraft, but investigations on the matter are going on," he said, adding that the attackers also chopped off genitals of Jisena.
However, relatives and friends of the deceased said they were deeply shocked because the couple had no enemies.

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They came for Sanseriya Oraow on a humid monsoon Sunday. Her neighbours dragged the middle-aged mother from her house and hammered a nail through her skull into her brain. Then, while she was still alive but in desperate pain, they sewed her up in a sack and dumped her in the nearby Murti river. Two days later, the police recovered her body.

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Even as the world outside observed International Women's Day on Monday, at Sikriatanr in Simdega district of Jharkand, a mob of 150 tribals branded a woman of their tribe as witch and beat her to death. According to 58-year-old Birsa Chik, his wife Geeta Devi (55) was accused of being a witch and killed. Her body was later sent to the Sadar hospital for post-mortem. Trouble began when two villagers, Muska Chick (57) and his nephew Sukra (45) were told by an exorcist that Muska's 22-year-old son Jairam, who probably suffered from typhoid, was a victim of a spell cast by Geeta. A panchayat was held and soon 150 Chik Baraiks charged at Geeta with sticks and beat her up till she died ...

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The fact is that Sunday Ulup-Aya was a jobless miscreant who latched on to the money-spinning witch-hunting business...He proclaimed himself a "Bishop" and the "Ulup-Aya" part of his name was a created one which means "a concealed secret had been revealed". This was part of his grand design to create fear and befuddle the ignorant masses. His activities raised concern in the Oron region of Akwa Ibom state. Oron region in Akwa Ibom state is one place where the belief in child witchcraft is very endemic. This region consists of five local government areas and they all speak the Oron language. One day, in December 2007, one Lieutenant Iweke of the Nigerian navy, Ibaka, sent a distress call soliciting for assistance over the plight of a child whose condition was so desperate that urgent help was needed. The child was found by volunteers covered with blood and urine. The child's name is Edidiong or Blessing and is probably the most recognized face in the Channel Four film. Only recently, towards the end of February 2010, another child (a boy) was recovered by volunteers with the assistance of the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Oron command. This child was accused of being responsible for her mother's death and subsequently locked up in a room containing the mother's corpse with a specific instruction to eat the corpse, if she wanted to live. This boy was identified as a witch by a church (your guess is as good as mine as to the ownership of the church) alongside his grandmother who managed to escape. But the boy was not so lucky and spent 21 days locked up with his mother's corpse without food. Of course, the corpse was well-eaten by the time the boy was rescued!...
...[Ulup-Aya] demanded for and accepted thirty thousand naira before he declared the witchcraft status of the innocent children. He did not realize he was being baited and he fell in headlong, enthusiastically boasting of his powers as seen in the film. Above all, he boasted of his murderous activities as well as claiming to have killed a lot of people (children and adults) who possessed witchcraft. In the lawless jungle of the superstitious Oron area of Akwa Ibom, Sunday Ulup-Aya is a much-feared man and many people today could testify to the fact of Sunday Ulup-Aya being a noted killer of witches.
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Police in south-east Nigeria have arrested a man who claimed to have killed 110 child "witches".
"Bishop" Sunday Ulup-Aya told a documentary film team he "delivered" children from demonic possession.
But after his arrest, he reportedly told police he had only killed the "witches" inside, not the children.
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Mr. Ulup-Aya reportedly told police he had not actually killed children.
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"We have him on tape admitting to killing," said Mr [Akwa Ibom State spokesman Aniekan] Umanah.
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WITCHCRAFT claims emerged at the Ngqeleni Magistrate’s Court yesterday during a bail application for the 10 men accused of killing a Transkei granny and her four grandchildren.
In court yesterday, senior State prosecutor advocate Mduduzi Mzila said accusations of witchcraft were the motive behind the brutal murder of 85-year-old Masilenge Bambusiba and her grandchildren.
Opposing bail, Mzila said the accused had discussed committing the crime at the homes of one of the accused, Tamsanqa Magwanqana.
Mzila said that a day before the murder a group of youths met at Magwanqana’s house, where the brutal murder of Bambusiba family “blended”.
“They discussed that there was a list where some youths in the village were going to be bewitched by the deceased (Bambusiba).
“Some of the people said to be on that list are some of the accused in the dock today.
“Even after the murder, they came together and received feedback that the murders had been successfully committed,” he said.
Mzila alleged that in execution of the crime, the accused went to the house of the elderly woman and killed her and her four grandchildren.
He told the court that according to some of the State witnesses, after the murder was carried out the accused told some of the people who would now testify for the State.
The accused were arrested days after the murder of Bambusiba, her three grandsons – Lwazi Bambusiba, 17, Lwando Bambusiba, 10, and Vela Nogemane, 9 – and granddaughter, Ezile Nogemane,5.
Their bodies were found lying in a pool of blood with wounds to their heads, faces and bodies on August 22.
The 10 accused are Siyabuza Celane, 21; Luthando Qhunuvane, 20; Bongani Gwadiso, 21; Mlulami Nkonyanebomvu, 20; Ndumiso Mangwanqana, 20; Macebo Qhuba, 23; Malwande Bambusiba, 22; Tamsanqa Magwanqana, 20; Ncedakele Nyawuzayo, 26; and Moses Mandlakapheli, 65.
Only two of the accused, Macebo Qhuba and Malwande Bambusiba, were called before the bench yesterday and both indicated they intended to plead not guilty.
Mzila said among the gang there were others who wanted to kill more of Bambusiba’s family members who were not in the hut during the murders.
“But there was no agreement among them.
“So there is this unfinished murder which, if the accused are granted bail, could proceed ,” said Mzila.
Mzila also said that on previous occasions Bambusiba’s house had been burnt down over the same witchcraft allegations.
Mzila said bloodstained clothing was found in some of the accused’s houses and murder weapons – an axe and bush knife with blood on them – were found hidden behind a wardrobe.
“Some of the accused when arrested even apologised in front of the parents for the murder they said they committed,” Mzila said.
The murder weapons were not displayed in court as Mzila said they had been sent to Pretoria for forensic investigation .
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