Tag Archives | Voodoo

More Than 100 Graves In Benin Robbed For Organs For Voodoo Rituals

By on December 4, 2012 in News 2

Even after death, you may still be of use to the living. Via Reuters:

Tomb raiders have dug up more than 100 graves at a cemetery in Benin since Saturday for what authorities suspect is a black-market trade in human organs and skulls for voodoo ritual fetishes. The incident is the most serious case of grave-robbing in the West African state, the world capital of voodoo where most of the country’s 9 million residents practice a benign form of the official religion.

Authorities in Dangbo began an investigation after a mason working at the cemetery said he spotted several masked men digging up the graves, from which organs and skulls were removed. “The desecration of graves is about money in this region,” said Joseph Afaton, director of the cemetery. “It is for sacrifices, or for bewitching.”

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Four Children Beaten to Death During Exorcism

By on August 6, 2012 in News 4

Photo credit Thom Quine

Via France 24:

Four children have been found beaten to death, the results of an exorcism:

Four children from the same family have been found dead in Haiti after being treated by a witch doctor who claimed to be able to cure them of a mysterious illness, a local official said Friday.

“Three girls and a boy, the eldest of whom was seven years old and the youngest only 15 months, suffered abuse from the healer who was treating them,” said Wilfrid Brisson, an official from the southern town of Marbial, told AFP.

“They were then abandoned in their mother’s bed.”

According to neighbors, the sorcerer — who was assisted by his brother — persuaded the victims’ mother that the children were possessed by a demon and said he could rid their soul of the devil.

The witch doctor and his brother beat the children repeatedly, in steps they said were necessary to expel the demon, and the youngsters died from the blows, said Brisson.

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