A BBC investigation into human sacrifice in Uganda has heard first-hand accounts which suggest ritual killings of children may be more common than authorities have acknowledged.
A former witch-doctor who now campaigns to end child sacrifice confessed for the first time to having murdered about 70 people, including his own son.
Gruesome stories of people, especially children, being killed by parents, friends, and strangers in horrific ritual practices have become common in the news from Uganda in the last four months.
At least 25 ritual murders involving children were confirmed in Uganda in 2006. In the same year, there were 230 cases of child abduction. The cases dropped to 108 in 2007, but then increased to 318 in 2008. So far in 2009, 18 cases of child sacrifice have been recorded, 15 of which have been investigated.
A confidential report into the sacrifice and abuse of children at African churches describes how pastors are profiting from the trafficking of black boys into Britain. Uncircumcised boys are being smuggled into the country for human sacrifice by fundamentalist sects whose members believe that their ritual killing will enhance spells. The leaked Metropolitan Police report also reveals “countless” examples of children being beaten or killed after being named as witches by spiritual leaders. In one of many chilling findings, it was suggested that youngsters were smuggled into the UK and given to men with HIV, who believe that having sex
AFP, May 2, 2003 http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/ From correspondents in Ranchi, India A court has sentenced a priest to death for sacrificing a nine-year-old child to appease a deity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. A lawyer said the state’s High Court upheld the sentence imposed by a lower court, saying it was a case of extreme culpability which rendered life imprisonment inadequate. “The murder … was definitely extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and dastardly so as to arouse indignation,” the court said. The priest was said to have sacrificed the boy in order to please a goddess. The killing happened