Hunting down those who kill people to sell their body parts for 'magic charms'
Number of ritual killings not known
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing.
The mother of an 11-year-old boy murdered as part of a suspected black magic killing four years ago is devastated that no-one has yet been brought to justice for his death.
"Today I'm in pain. They killed my child and now there is just silence," Sallay Kalokoh told BBC Africa Eye, explaining how her son Papayo was found with parts of his body removed, including his vital organs, eyes and one arm.
He had gone out to sell fish at the market and never came back.
His family searched for him for two weeks - and finally found his mutilated corpse at the bottom of a well.
"We always tell our children to be careful. If you are selling, don't go to a corner or take gifts from strangers. It happens frequently in this country," Kalokoh said.
This murder in my hometown of Makeni, in central Sierra Leone, has haunted me as we often hear of reports of killings linked to black magic, also known as juju, that are never followed up or properly investigated by the authorities.
In Papayo's case, the police did not even confirm that it was a "ritual killing" - when a person is murdered so that parts of their body can be used in so-called magic rituals by illicit juju practitioners.
They promise things like prosperity and power to clients who pay large sums in the false belief that human body parts can make such charms more potent.
But with the authorities severely under-resourced - there is only one pathologist in a country that has a population of 8.9 million - it is often impossible to gather the evidence needed to track down the culprits.
Belief in witchcraft is also so deeply ingrained in Sierra Leone, even among many police officers, that there is often a fear of pursuing cases further - and most go unsolved.
Uncovering trajedy
But I wanted to find out more about this underground trade in human body parts that leaves tragedy in its wake.
Our BBC Africa Eye team was able to find two people who claimed they were juju practitioners and offered to obtain body parts for ritual purposes.
Both said they were part of much larger networks - and one boasted that he had powerful clients across West Africa. The BBC was unable to verify these claims.
One member of our team went undercover, using the name Osman, to pose as a politician who wanted to achieve power through human sacrifice.
We first travelled to a remote area of Kambia district, in the north of the country near the Guinean border, to meet the juju man in his secret shrine - an area in dense bush where he consulted with his clients.
Calling himself Kanu, he wore a ceremonial red mask covering his whole face to conceal his identity and boasted of his political connections.
"I was working with some big, big politicians in Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria. We have our team. Sometimes during election time, at night, this place is full of people," he claimed.
Election season is regarded by some as a particularly dangerous time when parents have been warned to take special care of their children because of the heightened risk of abductions.
Brutal trade
On a second visit, Kanu became more confident and showed Osman what he said was evidence of his trade - a human skull.
"You see this? This belongs to someone. I dried it for them. It is a woman's skull. I am expecting the person to pick this up today or tomorrow."
He also pointed to a pit behind his shrine: "This is where we hang human parts. We slaughter here, and the blood goes down there... Even big chiefs, when they want power, come here. I give them what they want."
When Osman specified that he wanted limbs from a woman to be used in a ritual, Kanu got down to business: "The price of a woman is 70m leones [US$3 000]."
Anxious not to put anyone at risk, we did not meet Kanu again. He may have been a scammer, but we handed over our evidence to the local police to investigate further.
Healers, not killers
Sheku Tarawallie, president of Sierra Leone's Council of Traditional Healers, is adamant that "diabolic" juju men like Kanu are giving healers a bad name.
"We are trying very hard to clear our image. The ordinary person doesn't understand, so they class us [all] as bad herbalists. One rotting fish can destroy the batch of fish... We are healers, we are not killers," he told BBC Africa Eye.
Tarawallie is in fact trying to work with the government and another non-governmental organisation to open a traditional medicine clinic to treat patients.
It was those with a lust for power and money who were often behind the ritual killings, he believed.
"When somebody wants to become a leader... they remove parts from human beings. They use that one as a sacrifice. Burn people, use their ashes for power. Use their oil for power."
The number of ritual killings in Sierra Leone, where most people identify as Muslim or Christian, is not known.
"In most African countries, ritual murders are not officially recorded as a separate or sub-category of homicide," Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu, a lecturer at the UK's Arden University, told the BBC.
"Some are misclassified or misreported as accidents, deaths resulting from attacks by wild animals, suicides, natural deaths... Most perpetrators - possibly 90% - are not apprehended."
*Read the full story at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2y2le8lx1o / BBC
The mother of an 11-year-old boy murdered as part of a suspected black magic killing four years ago is devastated that no-one has yet been brought to justice for his death.
"Today I'm in pain. They killed my child and now there is just silence," Sallay Kalokoh told BBC Africa Eye, explaining how her son Papayo was found with parts of his body removed, including his vital organs, eyes and one arm.
He had gone out to sell fish at the market and never came back.
His family searched for him for two weeks - and finally found his mutilated corpse at the bottom of a well.
"We always tell our children to be careful. If you are selling, don't go to a corner or take gifts from strangers. It happens frequently in this country," Kalokoh said.
This murder in my hometown of Makeni, in central Sierra Leone, has haunted me as we often hear of reports of killings linked to black magic, also known as juju, that are never followed up or properly investigated by the authorities.
In Papayo's case, the police did not even confirm that it was a "ritual killing" - when a person is murdered so that parts of their body can be used in so-called magic rituals by illicit juju practitioners.
They promise things like prosperity and power to clients who pay large sums in the false belief that human body parts can make such charms more potent.
But with the authorities severely under-resourced - there is only one pathologist in a country that has a population of 8.9 million - it is often impossible to gather the evidence needed to track down the culprits.
Belief in witchcraft is also so deeply ingrained in Sierra Leone, even among many police officers, that there is often a fear of pursuing cases further - and most go unsolved.
Uncovering trajedy
But I wanted to find out more about this underground trade in human body parts that leaves tragedy in its wake.
Our BBC Africa Eye team was able to find two people who claimed they were juju practitioners and offered to obtain body parts for ritual purposes.
Both said they were part of much larger networks - and one boasted that he had powerful clients across West Africa. The BBC was unable to verify these claims.
One member of our team went undercover, using the name Osman, to pose as a politician who wanted to achieve power through human sacrifice.
We first travelled to a remote area of Kambia district, in the north of the country near the Guinean border, to meet the juju man in his secret shrine - an area in dense bush where he consulted with his clients.
Calling himself Kanu, he wore a ceremonial red mask covering his whole face to conceal his identity and boasted of his political connections.
"I was working with some big, big politicians in Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria. We have our team. Sometimes during election time, at night, this place is full of people," he claimed.
Election season is regarded by some as a particularly dangerous time when parents have been warned to take special care of their children because of the heightened risk of abductions.
Brutal trade
On a second visit, Kanu became more confident and showed Osman what he said was evidence of his trade - a human skull.
"You see this? This belongs to someone. I dried it for them. It is a woman's skull. I am expecting the person to pick this up today or tomorrow."
He also pointed to a pit behind his shrine: "This is where we hang human parts. We slaughter here, and the blood goes down there... Even big chiefs, when they want power, come here. I give them what they want."
When Osman specified that he wanted limbs from a woman to be used in a ritual, Kanu got down to business: "The price of a woman is 70m leones [US$3 000]."
Anxious not to put anyone at risk, we did not meet Kanu again. He may have been a scammer, but we handed over our evidence to the local police to investigate further.
Healers, not killers
Sheku Tarawallie, president of Sierra Leone's Council of Traditional Healers, is adamant that "diabolic" juju men like Kanu are giving healers a bad name.
"We are trying very hard to clear our image. The ordinary person doesn't understand, so they class us [all] as bad herbalists. One rotting fish can destroy the batch of fish... We are healers, we are not killers," he told BBC Africa Eye.
Tarawallie is in fact trying to work with the government and another non-governmental organisation to open a traditional medicine clinic to treat patients.
It was those with a lust for power and money who were often behind the ritual killings, he believed.
"When somebody wants to become a leader... they remove parts from human beings. They use that one as a sacrifice. Burn people, use their ashes for power. Use their oil for power."
The number of ritual killings in Sierra Leone, where most people identify as Muslim or Christian, is not known.
"In most African countries, ritual murders are not officially recorded as a separate or sub-category of homicide," Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu, a lecturer at the UK's Arden University, told the BBC.
"Some are misclassified or misreported as accidents, deaths resulting from attacks by wild animals, suicides, natural deaths... Most perpetrators - possibly 90% - are not apprehended."
*Read the full story at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2y2le8lx1o / BBC
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