Sorcery suspects tortured, one killed

By MALUM NALU
A WOMAN is dead and another is nursing serious injuries in hospital after they were tortured with hot irons and cut with razors by people who accused them of practising sorcery.
Wapenamenda-based American Lutheran missionary Anton Lutz in Enga, who is at the forefront of the fight against sorcery (known as sanguma), told of the horrifying ordeal of the two women, who were blamed for the death of a three-year-old on Independence Day.
Enga provincial police commander George Kakas confirmed the incident and said a post-mortem showed the child had died after choking on a piece of kaukau.
Lutz told The National that the child and his mother were having lunch with another woman at Pompabus village in Wapenamenda last Saturday. When the woman left, the child died suddenly.
“Local boys decided that the woman who had just left must be a witch. So they started chasing after her and caught up with her. There was another woman standing there,” Lutz said.
“They seized both women and tortured them all day Saturday.
“We tried to contact police but they couldn’t come.”
On Sunday morning, one woman died. The second woman was rescued by police and soldiers.
“She is being cared for and is currently safe,” he said.
The incident took place at Pompabus village in Wapenamenda.
Lutz said it was a new practice in Enga that  people suspected of sorcery were attacked.
Kakas, a strong opponent of the sanguma belief, confirmed the killing of the woman and the injuring of another.
“Both were accused of performing sorcery on a young boy, who had actually choked on a piece of kaukau,” he told The National.
“They accused the two women of eating the young boy’s heart.