Meri Ibrahim at the hospital after the attack
In less than two months, another elderly woman has been brutally attacked by a mob on claims of witchcraft.
The incident reportedly occurred at a village called Sumpini, near Busunu in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.
It happened around the area where 90-year-old woman Akua Denteh was killed by a mob at Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality of the same region, sparking national outrage.
This time around, Meri Ibrahim, 60, was lucky to escape death but not until she had been savagely attacked with machetes and other offensive weapons by the mob in Sumpini.
She sustained severe cutlass wounds on Saturday night and is in critical condition at the Damongo Hospital receiving treatment.
According to the mob, the victim had wanted to use witchcraft to ‘kill’ a young man in the town and had to be made to ‘suffer’ for it to serve as deterrent to other would-be ‘witches’.
Meri Ibrahim, in a video, narrated that she and two other women in the Sumpini community were accused of witchcraft but the two other women were able to flee from the community to avoid any attacks.
She revealed that she was at home when some residents came and accused her of being a witch, but she denied.
Meri said that did not stop the residents from attacking her with machetes and other offensive objects and her house ransacked and belongings destroyed.
The incident has since been reported to the Savannah Regional Police Command, and according to DAILY GUIDE’s investigations, five people have been arrested so far.
In the case of Akua Denteh, seven people made up of the suspected ringleader, Sherina Mohamed alias Hajia Filipina, her accomplice Latifa Bumaye and five other men who participated in the lynching are currently standing trial at the Bole District Magistrate Court.
Currently, Parliament is working on a Witchcraft Bill, and when passed into law, it would deal with some of these incidents associated with the unlawful lynching of people accused of witchcraft.
The highlights of the proposed Witchcraft Bill include the prohibition or professional witchcraft or wizardry, prohibition against the accusation of witchcraft, participation in the declaration of a person as a witch or wizard and penalty against chief or headman encouraging witchcraft.
FROM Eric Kombat, Busunu