Uganda: Witchdoctor Held Over Child Sacrifice
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- Created on 23 December 2012
- Written by Charles Etukuri and Nomax Mugisha | AllAfrica.com
He had been told that in order to get rich, he had to kill someone, drain blood and offer it for sacrifice. So when an opportunity knocked, David Rumanzi, a witchdoctor, looked no farther than his relative's home and picked his five-year-old nephew Godfrey Ashabire on December 15.
He convinced the boy's guardian to let his nephew escort him to a nearby shop so that he could buy him a cake. Because they trusted him, they let the boy go with him. But Rumanzi was planning to kill the boy for ritual purposes.
Ashabire, a P1 pupil at Bwizibwera Town School and a son to Nkuba Gaston of Kagongi in Kashari, was found murdered, his blood sucked and his body dumped in a swamp three hours later.
"I did not detect any harm, since he was an uncle to the deceased," reveals Charity who was taking care of him.
San Diego man ordered to stand trial in alleged child sacrifice attempt at cemetery
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- Created on 04 June 2012
- Written by The Republic Indiana USA
SAN DIEGO — A man accused of slashing his 8-year-old son's forearms at a San Diego cemetery as a sacrifice to his dead grandmother has been ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted murder and felony child abuse.
U-T San Diego reports Judge Peter Deddeh ruled in Monday's preliminary hearing that 31-year-old Joseph Ramirez will continue to be held on $2 million bail.
Ramirez has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Ramirez took his three kids and their mother to Mount Hope Cemetery Saturday to visit his uncle's grave, where he said it was time to "go to heaven."
Ramirez allegedly slashed the boy's arms with a broken candle holder, then cut himself.
If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison.
Street kids, orphans targeted for internal organs
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- Created on 01 June 2012
- Written by Daily Monitor UG
While cases of child sacrifice are reportedly going down, a new dangerous, sophisticated and lucrative wave of crime targeting street kids, orphans and abandoned children has evolved in major urban centres.
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development is investigating a racket involving judicial officers, probation officers, orphanages and passport control officials who are running the trade.
According to Mr Fred Onduri-Machulu, the commissioner youth and children affairs in the ministry, the racket takes advantage of the hopelessness of the children to lure them into so-called orphanages and child-homes which later turn out to be the holding centres before they are trafficked to countries like India, China and the United States of America, where their internal organs are harvested and sold while those who are rejected are subjected to child labour and sex slavery.
Speaking at the launch of a programme for awareness creation for child rights protection in juvenile justice yesterday, Mr Onduri said the trade has evolved because of the breakdown in moral and family values where parents have abandoned their parenting duties, leaving the nurturing of children in the hands of housemaids and television.
The report comes at the backdrop of a survey recently conducted across the four juvenile remand homes which indicates a growing number of children getting into conflict with the law.
Asked if they have statistics to back up the claims, Mr Onduri said the information keeps filtering through to the ministry and they are beginning to closely work with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies of the countries where the children are taken to trace them.
“We are investigating a case where a mother in Jinja early this month sold off her child for Shs850,000,” he said.
