Sanguma

NCD Taskforce Commander, Mark Mosinakave, says they have a witness willing to go on record and will move forward to apprehend suspects as soon as they verify all information given in.

Mosinakave says his unit will be moving in to bring in the suspects and hold them on attempted murder charges.

Meantime, NCD metropolitan police commander, Perou N'Dranou, has condemned the attack and said that such practices have no place in the city.

"These people are just ignorant bullies preying on the weak," says N’Dranou.

Duran Farm Housing Project general manager, John Kume, said such practises have happened several times.

The torture of the elderly woman took place on development land earmarked for the Duran Farm Housing Project.

Known as portion 528, the area has been occupied by settlers from various ethnicities.

Kume, who was at the scene of the incident, said it was shocking that such a practise was happening in the city.

Head of the Emergency Department, Dr. Sam Yockopua, confirmed that she was brought in and has been attended to.

Dr Yockopua said the elderly woman sustained scratches and minor cuts to her body after being dragged on the ground. She also suffered a knife wound to the head.

He said she received minor burns which are not life threatening.

The ER Head said the woman will remain at the hospital and receive treatment and psychological support.

She is expected to remain at the hospital until she is in a stable condition.

Human rights judge, Justice David Cannings, said no person should be subjected to this sort of intimidation (sorcery-related violence) or terrible events that are being reported.

Sorcery is a criminal matter, but it can also be a civil matter under human rights.

He made the comment following the recent attempted killing of a 6-year-old girl in a sorcery accusation related violence (SARV) incident.

“It is saddening to see that a six-year-old girl was brutally attacked as a ‘sanguma girl’. Thank God she is alive and recuperating.”

He said there are reports from many parts of Papua New Guinea of sorcery or sanguma related accusations, tortures and killings. The accused are often women who are vulnerable and defenseless.

And now, they are targeting little girls.

Director of the Family Healing Foundation, Lydia Kailap, is joining the ever growing call for Government action following the recent brutal torture of a little girl in Enga Province amidst sorcery claims.

“I am trying to put together some form of peaceful protest during the PNG Games here in Kimbe,” Kailap tells Loop PNG.

This finding, from a researched conducted over 20 years, was presented yesterday during a public forum at the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby.

Researchers Dr Fiona Hukula (National Research Institute) and Dr Miranda Forsyth (Australian National University) pointed out that in the majority of reported incidents, there were multiple victims and extreme violence was often involved.

But females and males were often harmed differently, with females more likely to be burnt and be raped.

The girl, thought to be six years old, had accompanied her father to Tukusanda village when rumours of sanguma started going around. And because her mother was the late Leniata Kepari, who was burnt alive in 2013 in Mt Hagen due to sorcery accusations, all eyes fell on the little girl.

“When the villagers learnt that she was Leniata’s daughter, they presumed that she may have possessed the sanguma spirit,” Enga’s acting provincial police commander, Epenes Nili, tells Loop PNG.