Scores arrested for killing suspected “sorcerers”

The Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) arrested 89 people suspected to have taken part in the killings of at least 244 alleged “sorcerers” in the Aru district of northeastern DRC in the past three weeks, the ‘New Vision’ reported on Friday. About 140 survivors, most of them elderly people and their families, have taken refuge at UPDF district headquarters. Some had machete wounds. A UPDF intelligence officer for Bunia told the ‘New Vision’ that “the authorities and the people in the district take the killings as normal. We had to move in and stop the stupid killings. They are even reluctant to charge these people we have arrested”. Two local chiefs are among the suspects held. Ovu Sudara, one of the chiefs in custody, said they had been informed that the world had dedicated the month to eradicate sorcerers. Records at the office of the district commissioner indicated that the killings started on 15 June at Yuku village in Otso community.