Worry of witchcraft and bacterium collide in case of deaths in Ivory Coast

Residents of the Ivorian village of Kpo-Kahankro are in shock. Previously two months, over 15 mysterious deaths have plunged the complete group into despair.

Dorothée Ahou Kouamé has misplaced her 3-year-old granddaughter. Authorities say they’ve discovered traces of a lethal bacterium on the deceased.

“At current, the physique continues to be within the morgue. The burial has not but taken place. I have never seen her since that day. We have been forbidden to see them,” Mrs Ahou Kouamé laments.

Some are blaming witchcraft and accusing a outstanding villager of putting in a fetish.

Clostridium, a typical however lethal bacterium was discovered each on the so-called object of witchcraft and on corpses that authorities examined. Nonetheless many gray areas stay.

“We’re nonetheless afraid… we’re nonetheless afraid, as a result of the primary blow (of the sequence of deaths, editor’s be aware), was on 2 December when it killed six individuals, it let up for, as an instance, a month after which it began once more. So that is our concern,” Paul Kouassi,a  village youth chief particulars.

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 The person accused of putting in the article and the proprietor of the land the place the fetish was set have been condemned to five years in jail on February 9 for disorderly conduct and charlatanism.

The fetish was moved out of the village. The native chief just isn’t utterly reassured although.

“It is a mystical factor. It is a wind-driven factor. When it is wind-driven, you’ll be able to’t see it. So it is a mystical factor. So it surrounded the entire village,” Nanan Patrice Koffi says.

Based on the well being authorities 16 died however villagers say 21suffered premature deaths together with 18 kids.

Signs prompted by botulism that’s attributable to the lethal bacterium embrace vomiting and muscle paralysis.