Category World News

Driven out of their homes

Belief in witchcraft is deeply entrenched across Ghana, cutting through both rural and urban life, explains John Azumah, the director of the Sanneh Institute in Accra, a research centre, which has long supported survivors of witchcraft accusations and is part of a coalition pressing for legal and social reform.

“It’s not just a Ghanaian thing,” Azumah says. “Belief in the supernatural is so powerful in Africa. It’s very strong in Nigeria, in East Africa … What is unique about Ghana is the camps in the north.”

Although accusations occur in other parts of Ghana, women in those areas are more likely to be ostracised than banished. Meanwhile, in the north, the accused are often sent to the “witch camps” that usually serve as their last refuge.

The camps are often located near or within villages and are overseen by traditional priests or camp chiefs, typically appointed by village leaders. The camp in Gambaga is the oldest and most well-known, but others exist in Kukuo, Gnani, and Kpatinga.

Women, often elderly, widowed, or without strong family protection, are most frequently targeted, Azumah says. Many, too, are “the poorest of the poor”, he added. Once accused, they are vulnerable to mob violence, abandonment, or lifelong banishment.

Sometimes, the accusations have deadly consequences. In July 2020, 90-year-old Akua Denteh was lynched in a public market after being accused. Her brutal killing shocked the nation, and sparked calls for reform.

“It is violence against women – a demonisation of women,” Azumah says, explaining how witchcraft is not always viewed as inherently evil. Women accused of witchcraft are feared and condemned, while men who are accused of it are thought to use it for protection or good, he explains.

Almost any misfortune can be interpreted as evidence of witchcraft, says Azumah. “Sometimes people are just accusing others maliciously, or to get them out of the way for some reason. It could be fights over property or farmland, or it could just be pure jealousy, like somebody’s child is doing well in school.”

Once a woman is accused and sent to a camp, she may undergo a traditional “trial”, involving the slaughter of a chicken or guinea fowl. “When the guinea fowl or chicken is dying, the position of the body determines the outcome [of the trial],” explains Alasan Shei, the traditional spiritual leader who oversees the Gnani camp. “If it falls on its back with the head facing up, it means the woman has some witchcraft. But if it lies face down, then she is innocent.”

Yet even when this ritual “proves” innocence, returning home is rare. For most women, the accusation alone is enough to drive them from their communities.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the Tunisian capital to protest against what they call President Kais Saied’s escalating authoritarianism and the jailing of government critics.

At least 2,000 people, wearing black and carrying whistles and red ribbons, marched through Tunis on Saturday, chanting slogans, including “the people want the fall of the regime” and “no fear no terror, the street belongs to the people”.

Some held placards that read, “Enough repression” and “Not my president”.

The rally – under the slogan “against injustice” – brought together activists, NGOs and fragmented parties from across the spectrum in a rare display of unity in opposition to Saied.

It came weeks after a Tunisian court handed a five-year prison sentence to former administrative judge Ahmed Souab, a vocal critic of the politicisation of the judiciary.

Tunisian journalist Said Zouari told Al Jazeera the protests show a newly found unity between the groups of various ideological backgrounds.

“But these protests are not finding any echo in the Carthage Palace,” Zouari told Al Jazeera, referring to the presidential residence.

The Tunisian government has jailed dozens of opposition figures, journalists, lawyers and businesspeople, accusing them of “conspiring against state security”.

But critics say Saied is using the judiciary and police to target his political opponents.

They warn that democratic gains in the birthplace of the Arab Spring in the years since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali are disappearing.

“All the progress of the past 14 years has been overturned,” said Ayoub Amara, one of the organisers of Saturday’s protest. “Tunisia is big enough for all Tunisians, and no single person can rule it according to his whims.”

Monia Brahim, the wife of jailed opposition figure Abdelhamid Jlassi, said she joined the march because she believes “many Tunisians are facing deep injustice”.

“I came to defend my rights as a citizen,” she told The Associated Press news agency. “Political prisoners know for a fact that they are in prison to pay the price for their principles, their constitutional right for civil and political activism, and are being held hostage by the regime established today in Tunisia.”

Among those detained, some are currently on hunger strike, including constitutional law professor Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, who has been striking for more than 20 days.

The march on Saturday came as part of a broader surge in protests nationwide over political and economic turmoil under Saied’s rule. On Thursday, Tunisian journalists protested against the widening crackdown on the freedom of the press and the temporary suspension of several prominent civil society organisations.

Saied was democratically elected in 2019, succeeding Beji Caid Essebsi, who died earlier this year. The 70-year-old suspended parliament and consolidated all branches of power in 2021 before moving to prosecute political opponents and former officials.

Early in Saied’s tenure, the Tunisian government focused its crackdown on the Ennahdha Party, which was part of Essebsi’s governing coalition.

Tunisian courts have handed several jail sentences to Ennahdha’s leader, former Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, in cases that his supporters say are politically motivated.

Even Saied’s former allies have not been spared by the crackdown.

Nadia Akacha, the Tunisian president’s former chief of staff, who was considered one of his close and influential aides, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in absentia in July.

Rights groups have also accused Saied of pushing to suppress civil society in Tunisia.

Amnesty International said earlier this month that the crackdown on rights groups has reached critical levels with arbitrary arrests, detentions, asset freezes, banking restrictions and suspensions targeting 14 NGOs.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, has said that more than 50 people, including politicians, lawyers, journalists and activists, have been subjected to arbitrary arrest or prosecution since late 2022, for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly or political activity.

The rights group also warned that broad antiterrorism and cybercrime laws were being utilised to criminalise dissent and tame all forms of free speech.

After the United States warned major carriers about a “potentially hazardous situation” due to “heightened military activity” around the South American nation, six international airlines have suspended flights to Venezuela.

According to Marisela de Loaiza, president of the Venezuelan Airlines Association, flights to the nation were all suspended on Saturday, along with Portugal’s TAP, Chile’s LATAM, Colombia’s Avianca, Brazil’s GOL, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean.

Iberia announced it would be suspending flights to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, until further notice, while TAP announced it would cancel its flights for Saturday and the following Tuesday.

TAP informed Reuters news agency that its decision was influenced by the US notice, which stated that Venezuelan airspace’s safety is not guaranteed.

For the time being, Venezuela’s LASER, Spain’s Air Europa and PlusUltra, Panama’s Copa Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Spain’s Air Europa and PlusUltra will continue to fly.

As tensions between the US and Venezuela soar, with Washington sending troops and the largest aircraft carrier in the world to the Caribbean as part of what it refers to as an anti-narcotics operation. However, Caracas claims that the operation is an attempt to remove Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro from power.

At least 83 people have been killed in at least 21 attacks on alleged drug boats carried out by the US military in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The campaign began after President Donald Trump’s administration increased its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction to $50 million, describing him as the “global terrorist leader of the Cartel de los Soles” and calling him the “global terrorist leader of the Cartel de los Soles.”

Meanwhile, President Trump has reportedly expressed doubts about whether Venezuela might be a target for military action, saying in a CBS interview earlier this month that he doesn’t believe Caracas was going to start a war.

When asked if Maduro’s time as president was up, he responded, “I would say yes.

Then, on Sunday, he said the US might meet with Maduro, and on Monday, he said, “I don’t rule out that.” Nothing is ruled out by me. Venezuela needs to be looked after only.

Days later, on Friday, the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) advised all flights in the area to “exercise caution” because of the threats that “at all altitudes, including during overflight, the arrival and departure phases of flight, and/or airports and aircraft on the ground” (at all altitudes).

Since Hugo Chavez’s rise in power in the early 2000s, tensions have dominated relations between Washington and Caracas.

Following Chavez’s passing in 2013, the relationship deteriorated even more.

In response to accusations of corruption, authoritarianism, and election fraud, successive US administrations have rejected Maduro’s legitimacy and imposed severe sanctions on Venezuela’s economy.

The US position has been weakened by the Trump administration. It accused Maduro of leading the Venezuelan drug cartel Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), but without providing any supporting evidence, last week.

Conservative US hawks have been calling on Trump to oust the Maduro government in recent weeks.

Maduro has repeatedly stated his desire to talk with Washington and accuses the US of creating “pretexts” for war. However, he warned that his nation would exert pressure to defend itself.

According to the Venezuelan outlet Telesur, “No foreign power will impose its will on our sovereign homeland.”

They will face a great surprise, however, if they break the peace and continue to pursue their neocolonial goals. They will receive a truly monumental surprise, I repeat, so I ask that it doesn’t happen.

Maria Corina Machado, the president’s opposition leader in Venezuela, claimed that the election resulted from rigging the results and that overthrowing Maduro would not lead to regime change.

We don’t want a new regime, we say. We’re requesting that the people’s wishes be respected, and that this transition be peaceful, orderly, and irreversible, she told The Washington Post on Friday.

Machado, 58, has urged foreign investments and privatization of Venezuela’s oil industry.