Witch hunts in Papua New Guinea

[2] Although the nature of witch-hunting varies across Papua New Guinea, a very ethnically diverse country, in most cases, witchcraft accusations are triggered by the illness or death of a family member or friend, leading to relatives and other villagers seeking vengeance against the suspected 'witch' who they believe to have caused their misfortune.

[1] Migration and social dislocation caused by the use of land for extracting natural resources as well as new development and rapid modernisation have also led to disruption and the spread of sanguma beliefs, helping to make the country fertile ground for witch-hunting.

[3] The likelihood of being branded as a witch also tends to increase if a family member has been accused of the same crime in the past as it is believed that the ability to perform black magic is passed down through generations.

Methods of torture include beating (sometimes with barbed wire), hanging over fire, burning with hot irons, cutting, flaying and amputation of body parts and raping.

[1][9] Shortly after, the girl was abducted and tortured for five days, being strung up by the ankles and flayed with hot machetes in order to force an admission of witchcraft and get her to 'return' her cousin's heart.

[1] The speed of development and its unevenness has led to significant social upheaval as more people leave their villages to seek employment or are forced off their land to make way for the extraction of natural resources.

[4] As a result, new communities of economic migrants have formed without traditional authority figures (village chiefs and elders) or tribal justice systems to address sanguma accusations, allowing unruly, angry mobs, often led by young men affected by alcohol and drugs, to target innocent people in witch hunts as scapegoats for their misfortunes.

For example, in one case an alleged witch who was forced to flee her home because of her dangerous sanguma accusation was attacked in the community she relocated to after being recognised from a viral Facebook post.

[11] This economic divide has bred resentment amongst the less well-off, leading to sorcery-related attacks being carried out on wealthier neighbours and relatives as an excuse to grab their land and property and to stop them from continuing their own development.

[9] Many believe this legal crackdown on witch hunts was prompted by the high-profile media case of Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old woman who was burned alive by a mob after being accused of using witchcraft to kill a young boy.

One of the key problems halting progress are low rates of conviction of witch-hunters, evidenced in a 20-year-long study by the Australian National University, which showed that less than one per cent of perpetrators from over 2,000 cases of witchcraft-related torture and killings were prosecuted.

Oxfam, for example, has advocated providing access to clean water, hygiene education and improved agricultural practices to reduce the likelihood of sickness and premature deaths, common triggers of witch-branding.

For example, Ruth Kissam is a community organiser and human rights activist who in 2013 advocated for the repeal of the 1971 Sorcery Act, playing a critical role in the success of its removal.