Woman escapes lynching over witchcraft allegations

A woman believed to be in her late 50’s was nearly lynched by some angry youth who alleged she is a witch.

Meiri Ibrahim was attacked in her house around 10:00 pm Saturday, August 29 by machete-wielding young men at Sumpini in the West Gonja District of the Savannah region.

Narrating her ordeal in Gonja, Madam Meiri said, the youth accused her of being behind the death of a young man in the community.

According to her, she pleaded with her assailants but to no avail; they went ahead to attack her, inflicting deep cutlass wounds on her arm and head.

She was rushed to the Damongo Government Hospital by some good Samaritans where she is currently receiving treatment.

The matter has since been reported to the Damongo District Police Command.

Witchcraft accusations in the past month have been running in the news.

The murder of a 90-year-old woman at Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality is one of such cases.

Over the week, the Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Cynthia Morrison and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Gender visited some alleged witch camps in the Northern and North East regions.

Their visit was to assess the state of the camps and to engage with traditional authorities on how to deal with the issue.