Five women accused of being witches and murdered by a mob last week were among some 80 people killed each month in Tanzania this year by vigilantes taking the law into their own hands, a report said Monday.
Thousands of elderly Tanzanian women have been strangled, knifed to death and burned alive over the last two decades after being denounced as witches.
The report published by the Dar es Salaam-based rights group Legal and Human Rights Centre showed 479 deaths related to mob justice reported in Tanzania from January to June this year, including women accused of witchcraft.
Helen Kijo-Bisimba, the centre’s executive director, said human rights abuses had risen in the past year, which she blamed partly on restrictions on freedoms following President John Magufuli’s order to ban political activities until 2020.
Belief in witchcraft in the East African country dates back centuries as a way of explaining common misfortunes like death, failed harvests and infertility.
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