Six people accused of witchcraft were killed, burned alive, stoned or beaten by a militia in Burundi, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
The official and witnesses, who all asked for anonymity, said the incident happened on Monday after accusations made by members of the ruling party’s powerful youth movement, known as the Imbonerakure.
The group is described as a militia by the United Nations and rights organizations.
“A group of young Imbonerakure entered the homes of about 10 people accused of witchcraft. They then attacked them,” according to the official from Gasarara Hill, six miles east of Burundi’s economic capital, Bujumbura.
“Six people were killed, two of them burned alive. The others were beaten to death with clubs or stoned with large stones thrown at their heads,” the official said. “It was horrific, unspeakable barbarity.”
The official said three further people were also beaten but were ultimately rescued after police intervened.
Several unverified videos have circulated on social media since Tuesday.
Some of the clips were authenticated to AFP by two witnesses, who also identified the group as the Imbonerakure.
Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have accused the Imbonerakure of killing and torturing dozens of people, particularly under the authoritarian rule of former president Pierre Nkurunziza, in power from 2005 until 2020.
“Imbonerakure members, some of whom are armed, have arrested, ill-treated, and killed suspected opponents, sometimes in collaboration with or with the support of local administrative officials, police, or intelligence agents,” according to Human Rights Watch.
Bujumbura provincial governor Desire Nsengiyumva said on Tuesday that 12 people had been arrested over the incident.
He denounced the “unacceptable mob justice,” saying locals had wrongly attributed recent unexplained deaths to the victims.
The tiny nation is predominantly Christian, and traditional beliefs are deeply rooted with unexplained deaths often blamed on witchcraft.
Only last year, the Supreme Court sentenced a former prime minister to life imprisonment for charges “including using witchcraft to threaten the president’s life, destabilizing the economy and illegal enrichment.”
Belief in witchcraft remains common in many rural communities along the west African coast, and elsewhere in the continent.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International said hundreds of people suspected of witchcraft in Ghana face rampant human rights abuses including murder.
In February, two men in Zambia were charged with practicing witchcraft and possessing charms intended to harm the country’s president.
Belief in witchcraft is also common in some rural communities in Angola despite strong opposition from the church in the predominantly Catholic former Portuguese colony. Last year, police said about 50 people died in Angola after being forced to drink an herbal potion to prove they were not sorcerers.
During a 2009 trip to Angola, Pope Benedict urged Catholics to shun witchcraft and sorcery.