"Stop ritualistic killing. It will not pay you anything. It will not make you rich, nor will it give you a job. If anyone is found guilty of this practice, I will sign his death warrant without winking my eye and I will sleep well."
These were the words of Liberia's transitional power-sharing government Chairman Charles Gyude Bryant in reaction to reports of an upsurge in ritualistic killings in post-war Liberia.
These threats by the Liberian head of state have however in no way deterred ritualistic killers. Rather, there has been an upsurge in this primitive, barbaric practice. Notwithstanding Bryant's threat, radio reports of missing children in the capital Monrovia are common.
Just two days after the Chairman's pronouncement last month, a 19-year-old youth identified as Archibald Dakai was travelling on a motorbike in northeastern Nimba County when he was abducted by a young man who asked him for a lift on his motorbike.
He then led the youth to a group of ritualistic killers (known in Liberia as "Heartmen") who injected him with formaldehyde. The victim's decaying body was discovered later with parts missing.
Last Thursday, citizens of the central provincial city of Gbarnga went on the rampage, burning down vehicles and a Nigerian provision shop in protest at the upsurge in ritualistic murders in Bong County.
The protest was sparked off by the abduction of a youth called Junior Korto who was ambushed on the Gbarnga-Monrovia highway. He survived the attack, but sustained severe injuries during the scuffle.
Korto's attempted murder is just one in a series of ritualistic activities in Bong County, including the case of a woman whose body was found with breasts and fingers removed a month ago in Sergeant Kollie Town on the Gbarnga-Monrovia highway.
Three people have been arrested in the county in connection with ritualistic activities, according to police.
In another case, a Ghanaian identified as Ansu and a woman called Musu were seized by ritualistic murderers from their canoe as they travelled by river in eastern Rivercess County. The Rivercess County Superintendent Sampson Cephus told state radio that Musu's body was later found with organs missing. Ansu's body has not yet been recovered.
The justice ministry said that it is holding nearly 20 people in connection with involvement in ritualistic killings, a capital crime which carries the death penalty under Liberian law.
The ministry said it has received numerous reports of ritualistic killings by the so-called "Heartmen," with 13 incidents reported in eastern Grand Bassa County during just two weeks last month.
Residents of Grand Bassa organized community-watch teams to clamp down on perpetrators of this crime. There are also reports of ritualistic killings in southeastern River Gee and Maryland Counties.
Ritualistic killing is an age-old practice in Liberia. According to 70-year-old Logan Town resident Alfred Cooper, Heartmen usually remove the tongue, private parts, breasts, the skin of the palm and other vital parts, after killing their victims.
The parts are used to prepare talismans believed to endow users with power and riches. Talismans prepared from human parts are also believed to bring victory to users in political contests.
"This is why there is usually an upsurge in ritualistic murders during elections," Cooper said.
"Only mentally sound people in good health with some prospects in life are usually murdered. It is the sorcerer who prepares the talisman that decides whether or not a male or female is needed for a certain talisman," 65-year-old Ahmadu Belloe said.
Ritualistic killings take various forms in different parts of Liberia. What has made the practice so widespread is the fact that talismans prepared from human parts are used by persons from all walks of life regardless of social status or ethnic or educational background.
Ahmadu Belloe feels that this practice is rampant because past leaders have not grappled with the issue head-on. It remains to be seen whether Chairman Bryant or his successors will be more successful.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS