Anger rises in Gabon after rash of ritual killings (2013 article) 

Not much is known about the occurrence of ritualistic murders and related activities in Gabon. The 2013 article cited below strongly suggests that the belief in the supernatural powers derived from ritualistic murders exists and may even be widespread in this Central African country. According to the president of Gabon’s Association for the Prevention of Ritual Crimes, Jean-Elvis Bang Ondo, there were more than 20 ritual murders in the country in the first quarter of 2013, a staggering number,

The article also refers to a 2009 ritual murder implicating a senator. It wasn’t the first time a high-profile politician was involved in a ritual murder case (also see my earlier posting on the case) and I’m afraid it won’t be the last time. After all, though President Ali Bongo is no longer president of Gabon (he was deposed earlier this year, on August 30) and the country has a new leader, Transitional President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, this does not mean that ritual killing has stopped. Recently new reports emerged with details of ritual murders. Gabon’s new leaders face many challenges including the fight against superstition and ritualistic violence.
(webmaster FVDK)

Anger rises in Gabon after rash of ritual killings

Screenshot – not related to the article below

Published: March 26, 2013
By: Jean Rovys Dabany – Reuters

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – A rising number of mutilated bodies washing up on Gabon’s beaches this year has sown fear in the normally sleepy capital Libreville of a resurgence in ritual killings.

The body parts of humans and animals are prized by some in central Africa for their supposed supernatural powers, including among some politicians bent on gaining influence.

“We have seen 20 killings since the start of the year,” said Jean-Elvis Ebang Ondo, the president of Gabon’s Association for the Prevention of Ritual Crimes, in Libreville.

He said most of the victims were young girls whose lips, tongues, genitals and other organs had been removed.

The killings have stirred rising anger against President Ali Bongo’s government for doing too little to halt the murders.

“We want to shout out our fury and tell the authorities that this needs to stop,” said Jessy Biyambou, a member of the Cry of Women advocacy group, which is organizing an April 6 rally in support of victims’ families.

Roland Akoumba, whose 8-year-old daughter was found dead in mid-March, told Reuters he was losing hope for justice.

“When the police removed the body from the water, they saw that the tongue, the lips, and the genitals were cut off,” he said. “I filed a complaint but I know it will go nowhere.”

Officials from the notoriously closed-door government of the former French colony have declined to comment publicly on the killings.

Bongo was elected president in 2009 in polls that triggered days of rioting and opposition complaints of fraud. He succeeded his father Omar Bongo, who held a tight grip on power in the oil producing state from 1967 until his death 42 years later.

“The phenomenon of ritual crimes is real. But no one here is willing to turn anyone else in for fear they too will be in danger,” said a member of parliament, who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

In the most high-profile ritual murder court case in Gabon to date, a convicted killer accused a Gabonese senator of ordering the 2009 murder of a 12-year-old girl for her organs.

The senator’s immunity was lifted after the accusation was made late last year, but he has not been indicted. The senator has denied any involvement.

Gabon is not the only African country with a black market trade in human organs.

Tomb raiders dug up more than 100 graves in Benin’s capital in November. Cameroonian authorities in September arrested five people for trafficking after they were stopped at a checkpoint with a severed human head.

He said most of the victims were young girls whose lips, tongues, genitals and other organs had been removed.

The killings have stirred rising anger against President Ali Bongo’s government for doing too little to halt the murders.

“We want to shout out our fury and tell the authorities that this needs to stop,” said Jessy Biyambou, a member of the Cry of Women advocacy group, which is organizing an April 6 rally in support of victims’ families.

Roland Akoumba, whose 8-year-old daughter was found dead in mid-March, told Reuters he was losing hope for justice.

“When the police removed the body from the water, they saw that the tongue, the lips, and the genitals were cut off,” he said. “I filed a complaint but I know it will go nowhere.”

Officials from the notoriously closed-door government of the former French colony have declined to comment publicly on the killings.

Bongo was elected president in 2009 in polls that triggered days of rioting and opposition complaints of fraud. He succeeded his father Omar Bongo, who held a tight grip on power in the oil producing state from 1967 until his death 42 years later.

“The phenomenon of ritual crimes is real. But no one here is willing to turn anyone else in for fear they too will be in danger,” said a member of parliament, who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

In the most high-profile ritual murder court case in Gabon to date, a convicted killer accused a Gabonese senator of ordering the 2009 murder of a 12-year-old girl for her organs.

The senator’s immunity was lifted after the accusation was made late last year, but he has not been indicted. The senator has denied any involvement.

Gabon is not the only African country with a black market trade in human organs.

Tomb raiders dug up more than 100 graves in Benin’s capital in November. Cameroonian authorities in September arrested five people for trafficking after they were stopped at a checkpoint with a severed human head.

Source: Anger rises in Gabon after rash of ritual killings

Gabon election raises fears of ritual killings (2008)

Published: April 16, 2008
Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clar NiChonghaile
Antoine Lawson
Reuters

A sorcerer performs a dance in front of a sacred fire in Bitouga, some 600 km from the Gabon capital Libreville, in this September 2007 photo. REUTERS/Antoine Lawson

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – When the body of 13-year-old Ralph Edang N’na was found drained of blood and with gaping wounds in his genitals, chest and neck last month, many in Gabon thought it was politicians who had ordered his killing.

The murder of children and young adults, whose organs are eaten or used to make magical amulets, has increased in recent years in the oil-rich central African nation. Campaigners say some Gabonese politicians use the black magic rituals to boost their chances of winning lucrative government posts.

With elections to local municipal councils due on April 27, many fear a spate of gruesome child murders.

Every week, mutilated bodies are discovered in the capital Libreville, despite police patrols, and streets quickly empty after nightfall. Anxious parents are keeping a close watch around schools to prevent children from being snatched.

“It’s before elections and ministerial reshuffles that the vilest crimes are committed and the capital empties of certain kinds of politicians who go to the interior to carry out witchcraft,” said pastor Francois Bibang, a member of the Association to Fight Ritual Crimes (ALCR).

In ritual killings, which still take place in several African countries, people, often children, are killed to obtain body parts and blood in the belief they will bring social success and political power.

The ALCR says that in February alone there were 12 such killings in Gabon.

“Unfortunately, this practice seems to be spreading again in Gabon,” said Jean-Elvis Ebang Ondo, who founded ALCR after his 12-year-old son was kidnapped, killed and mutilated in 2005.

The government set up a National Observatory for the Rights of Children in November 2006 to implement the U.N. charter on children’s rights, enshrining the right to health, education and protection from abuse.

Gabon, with just 1.6 million people, is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producers but most of its population continue to live in poverty, while members of a rich elite drive shiny new cars along Libreville’s sea front boulevard.

Omar Bongo, the world’s longest-serving president, has ruled the country since 1967 and used the oil funds to weave a web of patronage which has created bitter competition for lucrative political jobs.

Ondo condemned “the silence of the state” and called on residents to “fight off these assassins who sow terror in the heart of Gabonese society”.

After a penal code approved in January omitted any mention of ritual crimes, Ondo called on the government to find out how many people had been killed in this way.

“Spare parts”

But no clear figures exist for how many children and teenagers are slain in ritual killings in Gabon.

The head of an association against ritual crimes, Frederic Ntera Etoua, said 290 killings had occurred since 1986 in the thick jungles of the Ogooue-Ivindo province in the northeast, where Ralph Edang N’na was killed.

“There is a pyramid organization with politicians at its head who pursue the famous ‘spare parts’ then the recruiters who are middle men and then the suppliers and sellers who find the innocent victims,” said Bibang.

Parliamentary speaker Guy Nzouba Ndama opened the latest session of the assembly on March 3 by denouncing ritual crimes by politicians.

So far no politicians have been convicted for involvement in such crimes. An attempt to prosecute a legislator from the oil-rich region of Gamba last year failed after he claimed parliamentary immunity.

Philippe Ndong, a psychology teacher at Libreville university, traces the rise in ritual crimes to 2001.

“As legislative elections approached, mutilated bodies were discovered around the country,” said Ndong. “An 8-year-old girl was snatched in Ndolou department and killed in Mouila. The man allegedly responsible was a candidate to parliament who entered the government after this crime.”

Ndong cites other ritual murders. In 2002, a man in his 20s, Lucien Bigoundou, was killed in the Digoudou forest of central Gabon while on a hunting trip with companions who cut off his genitals and other parts of his body.

In March 2005, the bodies of two 12-year-old boys were washed up on a Libreville beach — one was Ebang Ondo’s son. A month later, six-year-old Warlys Igor Mboumba was found dead in a Libreville gutter, his body drained of blood.

In January 2006, the bodies of three children under four were discovered in the trunk of a car in a private yard.

And last April, two men suspected of sodomizing a 3-year-old boy and draining his blood in a ritual killing were lynched.

“It is up to the government to put a swift end to this impunity or risk seeing a rise in mob justice,” said pastor Emile Ngoua, a member of the ALCR.

Source: Gabon election raises fears of ritual killings
April 16, 2008