Monday, August 24, 2009 Ugandan Witch Cult

I know witch scares are common in that part of the world, but this story seems to have some weight behind it. The accused aren't old women or other social pariahs out in the sticks, but well-to-do individuals in a large city. From the August 19th on-line edition of the Observer (Uganda):

New blood thirsty cult confirmed in Uganda

Written by Shifa Mwesigye
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 17:52

Police say the cult whose members are mainly wealthy Kampalans originated from West Africa

Police are investigating a religious cult of predominantly wealthy people linked to human sacrifice in the country.

The Observer has learnt that Police earlier this year, acting on a tip-off, sanctioned an investigation into claims that some wealthy people in the country are responsible for the spiralling acts of child human sacrifice in the country.

The Acting Commissioner of the Police Investigations Department, Moses Binoga, told The Observer in an interview last Thursday at CID headquarters in Kibuli that the Police are taking these allegations seriously.

Since the start of the year, his department has gathered information on this cult whose activities are mainly concentrated in Kampala. He says the cult originated from West Africa.

Authorities in West Africa have in the recent past fought running battles with cult members. On August 6, cult members shot and killed a policeman in Nigeria who was considered a threat to the cult’s activities in Adigbe area.

In the same country, 13 students were killed in clashes between cults calling themselves the Black Axe and the Black Eye, all said to be practising black magic. Some of their activities include killing, rape, extortion and theft.

Nigeria Police also clashed with the Boko Haram cult, killing 700 people and arresting hundreds of members of the group.

“We are investigating a cult which makes them [followers] take human blood periodically. It is a devil cult,” Binoga says of the Kampala cult.

Binoga, who also heads the Collation Crime Intelligence Unit, could however not discuss their findings so far, citing fear of jeopardising the investigations.

“It is an open secret everyone is talking about it, they say if you don’t take blood, the wealth will go,” Binoga says.

More details, including a brief history of human sacrifice in Uganda, are available at the link above.