appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

Thomson Reuters Foundation

A Tanzanian court has charged 32 people with murder after five women suspected of witchcraft were beaten to death, and their corpses burned, in a move which could help to deter such killings.
It is the first time a mob has been charged with witch killings, said Athanasia Soka, chairwoman of the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association, although hundreds of suspected witches are murdered in the east African country each year.
The suspects, among them the leader of a local militia, are accused of killing the women in Tanzania’s western Tabora region on July 25, state lawyer Melito Ukongoji told a magistrates court on Monday.
“I am happy to see that authorities are taking appropriate actions to prevent violent crimes against innocent women,” said Lweno Masali, a local resident.
Most of the women were beaten to death before being burned, a police spokesman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Rights groups have lobbied for the government to step up prosecutions, but it is usually very difficult for the government to identify people who have taken part in such crimes.
Tanzanians’ belief in witchcraft dates back centuries as a way of explaining common misfortunes like death, failed harvests and infertility, although this is often a smokescreen for other disputes, such as over land.
Thousands of elderly Tanzanian women have been strangled, knifed to death and burned or buried alive over the last two decades after being denounced as witches.
Women with red eyes are often accused of being witches. The suspects did not enter any pleas because the court does not have the jurisdiction to preside over murder cases.
They were remanded in jail until September 4, when the case will move to a higher court.
Almost 500 people were killed by mob justice in the first six months of 2017, many of them women accused of witchcraft, Tanzania’s Legal and Human Rights Centre said.
Most of the murders took place in the large city of Dar es Salaam and in the southern highlands where superstitions are strongly held, it said.


Tanzania court charges mob with murder for beating to death five women suspected to be witches

A woman in Tanzania balances a bunch of bananas on her head. A mob of 32 people were charged with murder for beating to death five Tanzanian woman they accused of being witches, a persistent problem in the African country. Photo: Shutterstock

News

World

Africa