Amnesty International, witchcraft accusations will risk hundreds of people “physical attacks or even deaths.”

Amnesty International said on Monday that hundreds of alleged witchcraft in Ghana, especially older women, including murders, demanded that the government criminalize the charges and ritual attacks.

In 2023, the Ghanaian Parliament passed a bill that would make it declare, charge, name or label someone as a witch, but the bill has not been signed into law.

“These allegations can lead to threats, physical attacks and even deaths, often tragic events that occur within families or among members of the community, such as illness or death,” Amnesty International said.

It added: “Older women living in poverty, health status or disability are at greater risk, as well as women who do not meet stereotyped gender roles. In some cases, the accuser is even based on the demands of a person to have a bad dream.”

The report said most of the victims were “marginalized people, especially older women.”

In many rural communities along the coast of West Africa, including Ghana and elsewhere throughout the continent, belief in witchcraft remains widespread. Earlier this year, there were two men in Zambia Responsible for practicing witchcraft and possess a charm designed to hurt the president of the country.

People accused of alleged witchcraft usually deported from their homeland, in Ghana, they seek asylum in camps run by traditional pastors, said the rights monitor.

Amnesty said Ghana has not done enough to protect victims, stressing the need for sensitization campaigns in vulnerable areas.

It also said the government failed to “ensure adequate food, safe housing and clean water” for people living in these camps.

“The authorities should use laws to specifically criminalize witchcraft allegations and ritual attacks, including protections for potential victims,” ​​said Genevieve Partington, Amnesty International Director of Ghana.

Partington is also a member of the allegations against witchcraft coalition, which was formed after lynching a 90-year-old woman in northern Ghana in July 2020.

Similar attacks have occurred in other parts of Africa.

Eight women were forced to drink poison and die from the death of two sick boys in Guinea Bisu last year.

Similarly, last year, two women in the 1960s were publicly killed, and the bodies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were burned down for suspected deaths of several people.

Leo Igwe, founder of the Nigeria-based nonprofit witch advocacy, told AFP that this reflects “we treat older people.”

Samadu Sayibu of Ghana’s rights group Songtaba said it also “emphasized issues such as gender and poverty”.

belief witchcraft Despite strong opposition from the church in the predominantly Catholic colonies, some rural communities in Angola are also common. Last year, police said About 50 people died In Angola after being forced to drink herbs to prove that she is not a wizard.

During his trip to Angola in 2009, Benedict urged Catholics to avoid witchcraft and witchcraft.