DMB
16 Aug 2009, 02:09 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6797697.ece
Within two hours the soldiers had seized more than 100 people. Simultaneously across Gambia another 1,200 suspected witches, both men and women, were rounded up. Shaking with fear, they were taken to secret government detention centres.
Here their nightmare really began. In the name of Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s dictator, they had been singled out for exorcism. Accused of being witches, they were blamed for the death of the president’s beloved aunt. By nightfall at least six had died after they were forced to drink a mysterious potion. Those who survived the foul concoction spent the following days racked with pain. Some claimed to have bled from their eyeballs...
...During the witch-hunts, which were orchestrated by the Green Boys, Jammeh’s most militant supporters, thousands fled over the Senegal border. Others were shot in the head.
In the tiny village of Makumbaya, Hawa Jallow and Kaody Soee, the first and second wives of Mamadou Bah Fulla, 60, said the murder of their husband by the Green Boys had left their family destitute. Jallow said: “The Green Boys said they had come for the witches who had killed the president’s aunt.
They said the president had heard in a dream that witches had come to kill her and now they must pay the price.”
This sort of thing is widespread in Africa. IHEU is trying to educate people not to believe that everything bad is caused by witchcraft, but the religions stoke the fires.
See http://www.iheu.org/node/2856
http://www.iheu.org/iheu-protests-attack-nigeria
Within two hours the soldiers had seized more than 100 people. Simultaneously across Gambia another 1,200 suspected witches, both men and women, were rounded up. Shaking with fear, they were taken to secret government detention centres.
Here their nightmare really began. In the name of Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s dictator, they had been singled out for exorcism. Accused of being witches, they were blamed for the death of the president’s beloved aunt. By nightfall at least six had died after they were forced to drink a mysterious potion. Those who survived the foul concoction spent the following days racked with pain. Some claimed to have bled from their eyeballs...
...During the witch-hunts, which were orchestrated by the Green Boys, Jammeh’s most militant supporters, thousands fled over the Senegal border. Others were shot in the head.
In the tiny village of Makumbaya, Hawa Jallow and Kaody Soee, the first and second wives of Mamadou Bah Fulla, 60, said the murder of their husband by the Green Boys had left their family destitute. Jallow said: “The Green Boys said they had come for the witches who had killed the president’s aunt.
They said the president had heard in a dream that witches had come to kill her and now they must pay the price.”
This sort of thing is widespread in Africa. IHEU is trying to educate people not to believe that everything bad is caused by witchcraft, but the religions stoke the fires.
See http://www.iheu.org/node/2856
http://www.iheu.org/iheu-protests-attack-nigeria