Mwanguhya. C, Mpagi
24 September 2006
At least 30 children are kidnapped each month across the country, police statistics show. This means each day a child goes missing in the country. Some children are taken for ritual murders. Police figures indicate that between January and May this year, 150 children were reported missing across the country.
Police records show that 92 children were abducted but 21 of them were later recovered while 13 were still missing by the time of filing the report in May. Two had been confirmed murdered in ritual sacrifice while the status of 56 missing children was recorded as "not submitted."
This means their fate was not yet established by the time of filing the report.
Thirty nine children were reported to have "disappeared or gone missing" and 13 of them were safely recovered. But six were still missing, two were confirmed murdered while the status (fate) of 20 children had not been submitted. Eight children were kidnapped. Only three were recovered and one was reported still missing while one was confirmed murdered.
The status of four children was not submitted by the time of filing the report.
Desperate parents are resorting to circumcising the male children and piecing ears of female children following information that such children are not preferred for ritual murders. The parents have been told that the witchdoctors do not sacrifice children whose body parts have been tampered with.
But the police spokesman Mr Edward Ochom said while some children are abducted for ritual sacrifice, these constitute the lowest number.
Ochom said the majority of the missing children might be growing up girls who elope to get married. He also said some children are abducted by child traffickers.
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