31 Mar 2017

Urgent need for measures against sorcery killings in PNG

From , 6:03 am on 31 March 2017

A Papua New Guinea church leader says strengthened laws and better law enforcement is needed to combat sorcery-related violence.

More than 100 men charged over the killings of seven people - including two young children - who they believed were practising sorcery, or sanguma, will face trial in Madang next month.

Father Victor Roche of the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and Solomon Islands says he hopes judgement in this case might stop communities taking the law into their own hands regarding sorcery.

He told Johnny Blades that sorcery-related attacks appear to be growing and have spread extensively from the Highlands.

A hut in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

A hut in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades