Ritual killings that have terrorised Cameroon: 18 young women are abducted, murdered

describes very violent crimes

Ritual killings that have terrorised Cameroon: 18 young women are abducted, murdered and found with brains, eyes and genitals missing
    Victims abducted by motorbike taxi drivers and dumped by nursery school
    Girls as young as 15 found in capital Yaounde with different organs cut off
    Families living in terror after 18 women aged 15-26 murdered in a fortnight
    Sister of one victim writes to President Biya accusing him of inaction
By Sara Malm and Harriet Arkell
22 January 2013
A series of ritual killings of young women in the West African nation of Cameroon has caused panic in the capital city Yaounde.

Families are now refusing to let their daughters go out after a spate of gruesome killings of young girls who were abducted by the drivers of motorcycle taxis before being murdered and dismembered.

Police have found 18 mutilated bodies on the streets of the capital in the past two weeks, five of them outside a nursery school, and all are believed to be linked to occult rituals.

In some parts of the country traditional healers believe that body parts including eyes, genitals, breasts and tongues have mystical powers, with many believing they bring riches and other good fortune.  Others believe that performing a human sacrifice will bring good luck.

Ritual killings were common in Cameroon until the 1970s but as education spread, the number of murders decreased.

Now families fear the practice is coming back, with the latest wave of killings causing near-hysteria in the capital city....

She accused the city's commonly-used motorcycle taxi drivers of facilitating the murder, and said the government had failed to do enough to protect the victims, who were from the poverty-stricken neighbourhoods of Mimboman and Biteng.

One local said: 'The moto-taxi drivers are the assassins' accomplices, and their targets are girls aged 16-25 who get the taxis after nightfall.  For a large sum of money, these girls are delivered to men in the suburbs who do the rest.'....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2266688/Families-daughters-18-young-women-mutilated-murdered-Yaounde-Cameroon.html



City panicked by wave of suspected ritual killings
By Tapang Ivo Tanku, Special for CNN
January 22, 2013

....In the past two weeks police have found 18 bodies dumped along the streets. Authorities said all of the bodies had been mutilated. Officials have not said if the female victims among the 18 bodies had been raped.

State security officials said Tuesday the bodies have been identified. The victims, who are between the ages of 15 and 26, are mostly Yaounde high school students, police said. They said a number of suspects have been arrested in the case, but so far no one has been charged.

State intelligence officials have launched an investigation to track down the killers, said Communications Minister Tchiroma Bakari.

In some regions of the country, traditional healers claim eyes, genitals, tongues and other organs have mystical powers. Some occultists believe such organs hold the keys to gaining wealth and other good fortune.

Until the 1970s, ritual killings were a common cultural practice in Cameroon, before education became more widespread. Signs of its gradual resurgence beginning last year have shaken much of the city.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/22/world/africa/cameroon-ritual-killings/index.html