Deadly hunt for 'witches' haunts Kenya villagers

KEGOGI VILLAGE, Kenya (CNN) -- It may be difficult for modern-day Western cultures to fathom, but in Western Kenya, beliefs in ghosts and witches are very real. And sometimes they have deadly consequences.

Justus Bosire stands in front of his house, which was destroyed by a mob that also killed his grandmother.

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In late May, news outlets in Kenya told the story of 15 people, mostly elderly women, who were murdered in a witch hunt near the town of Kisii. The killings shocked the nation.

Villagers said more than 100 people gathered machetes and knives and stormed the village of Kegogi after midnight.

"They started banging on the doors, they broke into the house and then they killed our grandmother inside," says Justus Bosire. "The mob was screaming and we panicked. We ran away and they came to our house and burned it to the ground."

When Bosire returned to his grandmother's house, he found her dead on the floor in a bed of embers. His father is missing.

"They claim that my grandmother and father were practicing witches," Bosire says. Watch Bosire describe her die »

Belief in witchcraft is strong in this part of Kenya. A few days before the incident, a group of schoolchildren reportedly found a book in their school that listed all the people in the community who would soon die and the witches who would be responsible. iReport.com: Share your stories, videos from Africa

For Bosire and his family, the killings are hard to believe. His grandmother, Peris, was the matriarch of the family. She was 86 but still actively farmed and dispensed invaluable advice to the family.

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Up the road from Bosire's house lives Paul Magoma. "I believe there is witchcraft and the witches kill," Magoma says while building a chapel. His fellow workers concur: Witches exist and can put spells on people.

Others are skeptical the slain women were witches. At the top of a hill outside Kisii, Joseph Omache practices his craft. Omache is a shaman, or traditional healer. He throws bones and communes with ancestors to help heal physical and spiritual ailments.

"It is very painful when somebody kills another person in the name of witchcraft," he says. "Why couldn't they come to me so that I can perform my herbal potion to identify the real witch so that I can go ahead now to trap him and then we can see what to do?"

Omache says that in his 10 years of studies and decades of practicing, he has never come across a witch.

"These are vendettas. It is not that people really bewitched somebody," he says, adding he believes that witch hunts are really about people expressing hatred and coming up with an excuse to hurt someone.

The area is one of the most populated rural areas in Kenya. Over the years, farming plots have been divided and subdivided. Omache and others say they believe witch hunts are about greed and vendettas in a place where almost everyone struggles to survive.

Whatever the reason, Bosire and his family must live with the consequences. Due to local taboo, they will never live in his grandmother's house. The doors are boarded, her belongings still lie charred on the floor. The family fears further attacks.

"We are fearing for our lives," Bosire says. "I knew my grandmother since I was a young child and I have never seen evidence of her being a witch

U.N. to naval powers: Protect Somalia food aid

he U.N. food agency Thursday urged naval powers to commit to protecting aid ships from pirate attacks around Somalia, warning that if escorts cease, crucial aid might not reach 2 million people.

The Spanish-registered Playa de Bakio was seized by pirates off Somalia in April.

"Millions of Somalis are suffering from a combination of insecurity, drought and high food and fuel prices. If relief shipments slow down, we could face a major catastrophe," Peter Goossens, Somalia country director for the U.N. World Food Program, said.

Pirate attacks on unescorted ships have been a growing problem in Somalia. In the last several weeks, three European freighters were hijacked off the Horn of Africa adding to the 27 other reported attacks this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy.

French, Danish and Dutch warships began escorting ships to Somalia in November 2007 and, since then, none of the food program's 27 aid ships have been attacked, spokesman Peter Smerdon said. That followed a spate of attacks against humanitarian ships earlier in the year that led to concerns that the agency would have to suspend deliveries by sea, as it did for weeks in 2005 after two WFP-chartered ships were hijacked.

With the last Dutch escort mission ending on June 25, "we need to establish a pipeline of support," Smerdon said. He said the program has appealed to governments but has not received confirmation and fears that "time is running out."

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Currently, the agency delivers 80 percent of its aid to Somalia by sea, and Smerdon said that if there are no warships to escort the food supply, the program will have to rely on ground or air travel to deliver the food. But both are dangerous and expensive.

Driving is very time-consuming, and it could take weeks to reach the people because of armed checkpoints requiring travelers to pay fees, Smerdon said, and with the increasing civil unrest within the borders, "the road is a dangerous place to be."

Air travel hasn't been used since the last severe Somalian famine, and limits the amount of food that can be carried, Smerdon said.

The International Red Cross has predicted that Somalia's food and water shortages could leave millions at risk for starvation.

Somalia's last severe famine from 1991 to 1993 swept through the nation devastating crops, killing between 240,000 and 280,000 people and displacing up to 2 million, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

The agency said that if there is no assistance from naval powers, piracy will increase and so too will death and malnutrition. Smerdon said that although Somalia's food crisis hasn't yet reached the devastation of the early 1990s, "we're worried it will be."

Witnesses describe Zimbabwe violence

Violence spread shortly after the 29 March election

As the date for Zimbabwe's presidential run-off approaches, state-sponsored violence has escalated sharply, according to human rights workers and opposition politicians in Zimbabwe who have given first-hand accounts to the BBC.

Andrew Makoni and Harrison Nkomo, both young human rights lawyers, fled to the safety of South Africa last week, fearing for their lives.

Five of Mr Makoni's clients, all activists for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been murdered over the past few weeks.

He says three of them had their eyes gouged out, and their tongues cut off.

'Systematic campaign'

"I had threats last year, and was incarcerated for my work, and I stayed in the country," he said, speaking at a small unfinished hotel in Johannesburg where he is now staying.

"But this time we have to take the threats seriously because there seems to be a systematic campaign to eliminate those with opposing views.

There are horrific injuries. Bones are not just fractured, they are shattered Human rights worker

"People are being abducted and their decomposing bodies are being found."

Mr Nkomo said: "I received credible information that I was on a list of lawyers who are being targeted by state security agents for elimination. It seems they want to remove anyone seen to be standing in their way."

Hospitals in Harare have been kept busy dealing with an endless flow of bloodied and bruised patients, who have been subjected to brutal beatings.

"The violence we're seeing is more life-threatening than it was," said one human rights worker, who did not want to be identified.

"There are horrific injuries. Bones are not just fractured, they are shattered. Victims speak of being handcuffed and then beaten."

Petrol bombs

The violence is worst in rural areas - where the MDC did well in the 29 March election, at the expense of the ruling Zanu-PF.

"There are hit squads operating, and the level of attacks is increasing," Misheck Marava, an MDC senator from south-eastern Zimbabwe, told the BBC by telephone.

Mr Marava represents the town of Zaka where, last week, an MDC office was attacked with gunfire and petrol bombs leaving charred bodies in the wreckage, according to the opposition.

"My homestead has been attacked three times," he said.

"My wife was beaten and the husband of one of our councillor's was shot and had his ribs broken. It's very, very bad."

Morgan Tsvangirai is still campaigning, but his supporters have been targeted

He also said the government's suspension of the work of aid agencies would have a terrible effect in his district: "We are now at the mercy of God."

Aid groups believe that their field work has been banned in part to prevent them witnessing government abuses.

"We are the eyes and ears of the international community," one foreign aid worker told the BBC.

"And it's clear that the authorities don't want us out in the countryside seeing what they're going to do."

In one of the worst attacks, Human Rights Watch says six men were beaten to death in Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central province on 5 May - at a "re-education" meeting meant to compel MDC supporters to vote for Robert Mugabe in the presidential run-off.

It reports that another 70 men and women were tortured, including a 76-year old woman who was thrashed in front of assembled villagers.

Retaliatory attacks

Although the government blames the MDC for the violence, all independent reports suggest that the vast bulk of attacks are being carried out by state security organs, as well as Zanu-PF militia.

No-one in the area had the courage to help him - they were too scared Blessing Chebundo, MDC MP

But human rights workers in Zimbabwe say it is not wholly one-sided.

"We're starting to hear stories about resistance being organised and retaliatory attacks," one told the BBC.

"A couple of Zanu-PF supporters were hospitalised after the Chiweshe incident."

Human Rights Watch says it has now confirmed at least 2,000 victims of violence - and that may be a conservative figure.

"Fear is being instilled in people to such an extent that they're running away to urban areas," says Blessing Chebundo, MP for KweKwe in the centre of the country.

"Zanu-PF youth militia and army men are forcing people to put on Zanu-PF T-shirts and they're confiscating the ID cards of people they think are MDC supporters so they won't be able to vote."

He described how, after a Zanu-PF rally last Friday, government supporters went on the rampage, killing an MDC supporter.

"No-one in the area had the courage to help him - they were too scared," he said.

A human rights activist inside Zimbabwe said: "Almost everyone you talk to seems to have a story of intimidation. People are being threatened and told they must vote 'correctly.'"

Sudan air crash death toll still unknown

HARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Investigators searched for a passenger list and examined the scorched hull of a jetliner Wednesday to determine what caused the plane to veer off a runway and burst into flames after landing in a thunderstorm in Sudan's capital.

Officials say 28 are dead after a plane caught fire shortly after landing in Sudan.

more photos »

More than half of the 214 people on board were able to escape, but authorities said it was still unclear how many died in the inferno.

State television initially said about 100 were killed, but officials later put the toll at dozens without being more precise. Deputy parliament speaker Mohammed al-Hassan al-Ameen said "about 30 people" died, while police spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdel Majid al-Tayeb said 23 bodies were brought to the morgue.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that 103 passengers and all 11 crew members survived. In addition, it said some other passengers may have left the scene after the crash, making an exact count difficult. Officials said most aboard the Sudan Airways jetliner were Sudanese.

The aviation authority has asked its counterpart in Amman, Jordan, for the passenger manifest to determine who was actually on board, as the original was destroyed in the crash, SUNA reported. The flight originated in Damascus, Syria, then stopped in Amman.

Al-Tayeb told the official SUNA news agency Wednesday morning that the fire had been completely extinguished and civil defense officials were examining the wreckage to figure out what caused the crash, which occurred late Tuesday.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the plane appeared to have left the runway after landing at Khartoum International Airport, and several loud explosions resounded as fire raced through the aircraft.

The roaring blaze dwarfed the Airbus A310's shattered fuselage as firefighters sprayed water, Sudanese TV footage showed. Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, and media were kept away.

A survivor speaking at the airport to Sudanese TV said the landing was "rough," and there was a sharp impact several minutes later. Watch as flames engulf the wreckage »

"The right wing was on fire," said the passenger, who did not give his name. He said smoke got into the cockpit and some people started opening the emergency exits. Soon, fire engulfed the plane, he said.

"As we landed, the engine burst into flame -- I was sitting right next to it," passenger Kamal Eddin Mohammed told the pan-Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. "It was horror inside the plane."

Reports differed on the role the weather may have played in the crash.

A sandstorm had hit the area with 20 mph winds between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. and there was a thunderstorm and similar winds at the time of the crash around 9 p.m. local time, said Elaine Yang, a meteorologist with the San Francisco-based Weather Underground, a private weather service.

The head of Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib, said bad weather "caused the plane to crash land, split into two and catch fire."

Sudan plane incidents

July 8, 2003
116 dead, 1 survivor
Boeing 737-200 ST-AFK crashes at Port Sudan
August 16, 1986
60 dead
Fokker F27 ST-ADY shot down by SPLA rebels at Malakal
December 6, 1971
10 dead
Fokker F27 ST-AAY crashes at Tikaka after a forced landing following hijack

Youssef Ibrahim, director of the Khartoum airport, blamed the accident on technical problems, but didn't elaborate. He told Sudanese TV that the plane "landed safely" and the pilot was talking to the control tower and getting further instructions when the accident occurred.

"One of the (plane's) engines exploded and the plane caught fire," Ibrahim said.

Due to inclement weather, the aircraft stopped at Port Sudan Airport along the Red Sea, picking up 35 passengers and refueling before heading to Khartoum.

Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In May, a plane crash in a remote area of southern Sudan killed 24 people, including key members of the southern Sudanese government. In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 115 people on board.

The Airbus A310 is a twin-engine, widebody plane used by a number of carriers around the world. Typically configured with about 220 seats, it is a shorter version of the popular A300.

An Airbus spokesman in Paris declined immediate comment on the crash.

Mandela's wife warns Mozambique of possible revolt

Thousands of destitute Mozambicans who fled anti-foreigner violence in South Africa may revolt against their home government if their needs are not met, according to a woman with a unique perspective on both countries.
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Graca Machel-Mandela, shown in April, told Mozambique it must help the destitute who have returned.

Former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel, who is married to former South African President Nelson Mandela and is a child rights advocate, spoke Wednesday in the Mozambican capital during a conference on ethnic cleansing.

A wave of attacks against immigrants in South Africa, which killed at least 60 people in May, drove 39,000 Mozambicans back home, authorities say.

Some fled on crowded buses sent by the Mozambican government; others took trains or found other ways to return. Once they arrived, however, most became dependent on others for survival.

"For the first few weeks, they will cry on the shoulders of their families for having lost everything," Machel said. "Then they will go and cry to the government, and at the end they will revolt against the government and all who are around them."

South Africans killed 27 Mozambicans during the violence, accusing them and other immigrants of taking jobs and committing crime.
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Although not all were assaulted during the attacks, accounts of violence, including a photograph of a burning Mozambican man on the front pages of local newspapers, were enough to persuade many to leave.

Machel said inadequate living conditions in South Africa's poorest areas, rather than hatred of foreigners, sparked the attacks. She said the violence was the result of years of unmonitored immigration that put enormous pressure on South Africa's urban infrastructure.

"Extreme poverty dehumanizes people and leads them to madness," she said. "That's what happened in Rwanda over 10 years ago."

South Africa -- considered the African powerhouse -- has long been a magnet for people fleeing poverty or violence in other nations on the continent. Up to 3 million Zimbabweans alone are believed to be in South Africa because of the economic meltdown and political repression in their country.

Delegates from Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended the meeting Machel addressed

Mugabe pledges to fight 'lackeys'

Mr Mugabe has been ratcheting up the rhetoric ahead of the run-off

President Robert Mugabe has vowed that the main opposition party will never lead Zimbabwe and said he was prepared to "go to war" for his country.

He is due to face Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, in a 27 June run-off poll.

Mr Tsvangirai was released after being arrested for the fifth time this week.

Meanwhile, deputy MDC leader Tendai Biti appeared in court in Harare, where a judge is to rule on the legality of his arrest on treason charges.

Mr Tsvangirai has been detained several times on the campaign trail.

On Saturday, he was stopped with 11 members of his party at a roadblock, the MDC said, and held at a police station for three hours.

The MDC issued a statement saying that it was now clearly impossible to talk about free and fair elections.

Mr Tsvangirai gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in the first round of voting in the presidential election in March, but not enough for an outright victory.

Formal protest

Speaking at the burial of a former independence fighter, Mr Mugabe said he would never accept the MDC taking over the government of Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe vows to fight anyone who 'undermines' his party

He described the opposition as "lackeys" and referred to Zimbabwe's past struggle for independence from its colonial ruler, Britain, saying the country should not be "lost" again.

"We shall never ever accept anything that smells of a delivered parcel that comes through what they call the MDC here," Mr Mugabe said at the ceremony.

"We fought for this country. Now we have it under control. After all that work, can we allow this country to be taken over by lackeys? That will never happen in our lifetime. It will never happen.

"We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war if we lose it the same way our ancestors lost it."

Mr Mugabe stopped short of explicitly calling for war if the opposition won the run-off vote, but the remarks raised the stakes in his fight to hold on to his job, says the BBC's Peter Greste in neighbouring South Africa.

The Zimbabwean government faces growing pressure from regional leaders over the harassment of opposition leaders two weeks before the presidential run-off election.

On Friday, Botswana lodged a formal protest over the current actions of the Zimbabwean authorities.

Political violence

Mr Biti was arrested on what police said were treason charges when he returned from neighbouring South Africa on Thursday. The charges carry a possible death sentence.

Tendai Biti has not yet been formally charged with treason

He has not yet been formally charged but that is expected to take place on Monday, says the BBC's Peter Greste in Johannesburg.

It took an order from the High Court for police to present Mr Biti - who had been taken to an undisclosed location - to the court and give him access to lawyers, our correspondent adds.

At the time of his arrest, national police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Mr Biti would be charged with treason "for publishing a document that was explaining a transitional strategy around March 26".

He said he would also be charged for proclaiming victory in the 29 March elections before official results were published.

The US ambassador to Zimbabwe said the US was very concerned about the treason charge and did not consider it justified.

Mr Tsvangirai says more than 60 opposition supporters have been killed in political violence since the March elections and 200 more are unaccounted for.

Mr Mugabe's supporters say the scale of the violence has been exaggerated and blame the MDC for some attacks.

But human rights groups accuse the ruling party of being behind most of the violence.

Animal viruses and humans

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Cameroon.

This week, I am in Cameroon investigating a piece for the CNN documentary “Planet in Peril.” I am writing this from a small village called Nyabissan. Don’t bother trying to find it on a map. It is in the heart of the jungle and one of the more remote places I have ever been. (Editor’s note: the path to Nyabissan was not very forgiving. Dr. Gupta explains HERE)

In fact, you are reading this blog because Neil Hallsworth, our camera man, was able to point a small, portable satellite dish in the sky and get a signal and then send this piece along with some of the video we shot back to Atlanta.

We picked this place because it is a hot spot in the world of viruses. It turns out there is a constant exchange of viruses here between animals and humans. There is a very cozy relationship here between humans and animals, such as rodents, snakes, mammals and other primates.

Just today, we passed two men who had killed an enormous viper, another hunter with a pangolin (also known as a scaly anteater) and two young kids with two dead monkeys. While this “Bush Meat” represents a necessary part of the diet, it can sometimes be a problem.

In fact, if you look at some of the deadliest viruses and other pathogens that have ever plagued mankind, they have come from animals, and many of them from this part of Africa. Somewhere in the hunting, slaughtering and eating of these animals, a pathogen makes a leap.

Most times it is inconsequential, but in a few rare cases it results in disaster. Think about Marburg, ebola, malaria and HIV, not to mention many of the influenza viruses. One of the mandates for the “virus hunters” we’re traveling with (Dr. Nathan Wolfe, Mat Lebreton and Karen Saylors, all with the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative) is to try and stop that exchange of pathogens, and in the process stop the next potential pandemic.

Next, I will share my experiences going out into the bush and looking at the practice of safe hunting. As I sit here in the jungle, I am wondering if you think we’re doing enough to monitor and stop emerging diseases around the world.

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

Posted by: Dr. Sanjay Gupta - CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
Filed under: Dr. Gupta • Health • Virus

Spain 'cracks $300m money racket'

It was Spain's biggest investigation

Police in Spain say they have smashed a massive international money-laundering ring centred on the southern coastal resort of Marbella.

Forty-one people of at least five nationalities were arrested.

The group is suspected of laundering more than $300m (£155m) for gangs involved in murder, drug trafficking, arms dealing and prostitution.

Spanish authorities said they suspected some of the cash was illegally siphoned from Russian oil company Yukos.

A spokesman for Yukos has denied any involvement in money-laundering.

Yukos defiant

A boat, two planes and more than 40 luxury cars were also seized in the raid which went ahead after 10 months of investigation, officials said.

Spanish, French, Finnish, Russian and Ukrainian nationals were among those arrested.

The only place left to look is on Mars - did we launder something there? Yukos spokesman

Interpol and Europol were both involved in the joint Spanish-Russian operation, nicknamed White Whale.

The Spanish interior ministry described it as its biggest investigation.

Large sums are thought to have been diverted from Yukos to a Dutch company and then to one of its Spanish branches, the ministry said.

The Russian oil giant has been under investigation by Russian authorities seeking the repayment of $28bn (£15bn) in alleged unpaid taxes.

The company's founder, Mikhail Khordokovsky, has been in jail since October 2003 and faces separate fraud and tax evasion charges.

Company spokesman Alexander Shadrin denied all wrongdoing in an interview with Moscow Radio, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

"The only place left to look is on Mars - did we launder something there?" he said.

Spain's Costa del Sol, a coastal strip including Marbella and the city of Malaga, has long played host to a number of international criminal gangs, earning the nickname "Costa del Crime".

Spain raids 'major Russian gang'

Spanish police have arrested 20 people in raids against a major Russian mafia gang, officials have said.

The suspects are accused of arms trafficking, money-laundering and contract killings, the officials said.

They were picked up in Madrid, the Balearic islands and the coastal resorts of Malaga and Marbella.

Judge Baltasar Garzon, who tried to jail former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet, led the investigation with aid from German, US and Russian police.

The suspects were using front companies to launder money from criminal activities in Russia and other former Soviet countries, the interior ministry said.

They were also suspected of drug trafficking and tax fraud, it said.

Spanish media reported that the group had started operating in Spain 12 years ago.

The suspects are said to have belonged to the Tambov organised crime group.

The well-known group - named after a region in central Russia - is based in St Petersburg.

More than 300 police officers carried out the raids.

Judge Baltasar Garzon began the investigation into the group in 2006.