The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, has called on churches to take the lead in the fight against sorcery accusations and violence against women in villages. O’Neill said the old mentality and belief in sorcery was affecting the nation in rural and urban areas. He said the most affected were always women Read more
The general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (CBC-PNGSI) has called on all churches to do more to create greater awareness of sorcery in their communities and congregations, and preach more about Bible teachings on sorcery. Father Victor Roche made this call, after reports from many parts of the Read more
The last person hanged for witchcraft in Boston could be considered a Catholic martyr. In the 1650s, Ann Glover and her family, along with some 50,000 other native Irish people, were enslaved by Englishman Oliver Cromwell during the occupation of Ireland and shipped to the island of Barbados, where they were sold as indentured servants. Read more
There have been at least 12 attacks on women in Enga this year in cases related to sorcery, according to American Lutheran church missionary Anton Lutz. “That’s just in Enga and not counting the border areas of Hewa and Paiela,” he said. “And the number of sorcery-related cases might in fact be higher.” Lutz said Read more
99 men charged over the killings of seven people, whom they believed were practising sorcery, appeared in Court in Papua New Guinea on March 23. Earlier on 122 suspects had appeared in court charged with wilful murder – in relation to the same incident in April 2014.he suspects were detained at Gusap police station and Read more
The parents who abused their teenage daughter because they thought she was a witch have been condemned by the leader of New Zealand’s Congolese community. Francious Kayembe said exorcisms and witchcraft were not common in the Congo, though the practices did happen in some sections of the community there. However, it did not happen in Read more
The Catholic Church has a unique role in combating belief in sorcery and mob reprisal attacks against sorcerers, Bishop Don Lippert of Mendi says. He has described the nuns who venture into the worst areas of the country as incredibly and inspiringly courageous. Lippert says they are putting their lives at risk in a desperate Read more
A gruesome video online shows the torture of four women accused of witchcraft and “invisibly” taking out a man’s heart and eating it in a village of Papua New Guinea. The footage, reportedly taken in a village of the Enga province, shows four women who have been stripped, tied up, burned and beaten. Several men Read more
A mob in Papua New Guinea has hacked to death a woman accused of being a witch. The woman – known as “Misila” – was one of four women saved by missionaries in January after a measles epidemic killed several people. The women were accused of being witches by a “witch-finder” who was paid by Read more
While the PNG government has made some efforts, the work to combat sorcery related violence is often left to church groups and NGOs says associate professor Richard Eves, from the state society and governance in Melanesia program at ANU. A recent intervention preventing the murder of four women accused of sorcery is being hailed as a Read more