Tomb raiders have dug up more than 100 graves at a cemetery in Benin
since Saturday for what authorities suspect is a black-market trade in human
organs and skulls for voodoo ritual fetishes. The incident is the most serious
case of grave-robbing in the West African state, the world capital of voodoo
where most of the country's 9 million residents practice a benign form of the
official religion.
Authorities in Dangbo, a village 10 km (6 miles) from the capital
Porto-Novo, began an investigation after a mason working at the cemetery said
he spotted several masked men digging up the graves, from which organs and
skulls were removed. "The desecration of graves is about money in this
region," said Joseph Afaton, director of the cemetery. "It is for
sacrifices, or for bewitching."
Body parts of humans and rare animals are prized by some people in
central Africa for their supposed supernatural powers, and are used in occult
ceremonies. Traffickers often obtain human remains from grave robbers, but a
recent spate of killings has also been linked to the gruesome trade. Authorities
in Cameroon in September arrested five people suspected of trafficking human
body parts after they were discovered at a checkpoint carrying a severed human
head.
Yahoo News
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