Gender Minister, MPs visit witches camps in the Northern Region

Gender Minister, Cynthia Morrison and members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Gender, Children and Social Protection have visited some witches camps in the Northern Region.

The visits to two prominent witches in the region are part of ongoing efforts to end prevalent accusation of mostly women as witches in the region.

The delegation visited the Gnani and the Kpatinga witches camps in the Yendi and Gushegu municipalities on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, where they interacted with the inmates to know their plight and concerns.

“Interacting with journalists during the visit, Mrs Morrison said the visit was to help the ministry come out with a well-informed policy and comprehensive strategy to help address the issue,” state-owned Daily Graphic reports.

According to the report, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee, Dr Kojo Appiah-Kubi, said he was concerned that accusations of witchcraft lead to human rights abuses, deprivation and poverty which was of great concern to the committee.

"Witchcraft is just a belief and figment of our own imagination, but the witchcraft is not the problem, but the witchcraft accusations, which in our part of the world have led to the creation of witches camps," he stated.

“We are, therefore, here to inform ourselves about the environment, to get educated and to gather enough data which will be used to prepare our report to Parliament," he is quoted in the Daily Graphic report.

The decades-old issue assault and human rights abuses against women accused of witchcraft came to fore again after a 90-year-old woman was lynched at Kafaba near Salaga in the Savannah Region.