Lynchings in Congo over Penis Theft

You can't make this stuff up. [Link]

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

They need to call out the ninjas. [Link]

Angry mobs have taken the law into their own hands by killing at least eight people they believed to be behind a wave of mysterious killings.

The vigilantes were seeking those responsible for the deaths of more than 150 people, killed by assailants dressed in black and wearing masks, similar to so-called ninjas.

According to local newspaper reports, three of the killer mob's victims were beheaded and one was burned to death. The severed heads were then paraded through village streets.

Police later arrested more than 50 people, suspected of being among the mob. The district police chief, Lieutenant Colonel Suhartono said that residents had overreacted to rumours about ninjas.

Witches and warlocks

The main targets of the ninja killers seem to have been ducans (black magic practitioners) - witches and warlocks are now receiving police protection - but some Muslim preachers and local public figures have also been targeted.