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Ugandan Child Murders Linked to Witch Doctors

US-backed task force struggles to quell brutal surge

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 6, 2009 6:10 PM CDT

(Newser) – Ritual murders and kidnappings continue to haunt Uganda despite police efforts to battle the horrors, the Guardian reports. Often linked to organ trafficking and witch doctors, some 300 cases were reported last year, and only 18 taken to court. A US-backed task force started this year has failed to stem the tide. The current strain of healers, who market themselves by mass media, "is mainly attributed to increased unemployment and poverty," one activist says.

Plagued with food shortages and famine, poor Ugandans are known to kidnap children and sell them for large sums to witch doctors. They in turn sell pricey sacrificial services to people who believe the rituals bring prosperity. Many bodies of kidnapping victims have also been found with organs missing, prompting police to believe that organ traffickers are disguising their work as human sacrifice.

Women and children sit in groups, crushing rocks together with a small piece of metal atop a piece of whittled wood just outside Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 17, 2008.
Women and children sit in groups, crushing rocks together with a small piece of metal atop a piece of whittled wood just outside Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Glenna Gordon)
Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni gestures at a press conference at the first India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, India, April 9, 2008.
Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni gestures at a press conference at the first India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, India, April 9, 2008.   (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
MarkFL
Sep 7, 2009 12:29 PM CDT
Be careful what you say Clearsight, FOX is already reporting your post as news and spontaneous protests have erupted all over the country. Obama's plan includes child murder and witch doctors according to reliable sources. You single BS post is about the right amount for FOX to consider it newsworthy. Conservatives are not allowed to joke around because your stances are already jokeworthy and the conservative dimwits out there in Americaland already cannot tell the difference between the truth and a joke.
MarkFL
Sep 7, 2009 12:24 PM CDT
Thank you for enlightening us Johnny. I would have missed that one. Somehow I am unaware of how to text like a racist!
Nwambe
Sep 7, 2009 4:21 AM CDT
Ahhh, now he was being modest. Truthfully, you're a stupid troll, which is quite an achievement. It's a shame you can't use your talents for political discourse. So few of your ilk can.

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