Two women aged 60 and 65, accused of witchcraft, were stoned and then burned in public on Sunday in a village in the Uvira territory in the South Kivu province. Civil society condemned this act and the increase in cases of mob justice in the region.
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With our correspondent in Bukavu, William Basimike
According to witnesses, these women, one of whom is the wife of a pastor of a Protestant church, were taken from their homes at nightfall, before being stoned, then burned by young people.
The victims were accused of being behind the deaths of several people who disappeared recently in the village. “ These two women who received several death threats already knew their fate », lamented André Byadunia, socio-political actor from Uvira who raises awareness of the fight against popular justice.
Mabiswa Selemani Jean de Dieu, administrator of Uvira, described this act as “ ashamed » and said he had alerted the legal authorities. Another Congolese civil society actor, Kelvin Bwija, denounced a “ retrograde practice “.
In 2023, the association of women in the media AFEM/Sud-Kivu deplored the assassination of at least 33 women, mostly elderly people, accused of witchcraft in Bukavu and in the villages of South Kivu. Others were forced to live in hiding.