On Friday, authorities in Papua New Guinea announced that they arrested 29 people who allegedly were members of a "cannibal cult." Of those arrested, 28 were present in a Madang court on Tuesday and charged with willful murder, which is punishable by death. These people are accussed of killing seven witch doctors and then eating the brains of the victims. According to the Time newsfeed, the victims' penises were also consumed after they were made into a soup.
Authorities are pressing criminal charges, yet “they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong; they admit what they’ve done openly,” Police Commander Anthony Wagambie, of the Madang province, said in a phone call to the Associated Press. Their explanation for their actions is that the victims were using sorcery to extort money. They were also supposedly soliciting sex from villagers who wished to use their supernatural services. By eating the flesh of the which doctors, the individuals believed they would absorb their supernatural abilities and become bullet-proof.
Wagambie said that this behavior is common for the area's "prevalent cult activity," although he admitted that he hasn't heard of a previous instance of cannibalism in his life. He estimates that there are between 700 and 1,000 cult members in the interior of the country, located in the South Pacific. Another expert, however, told a local newspaper that this surge of cannibalism "goes beyond the local culture."
Wagambie said he expected police to make around 100 more arrests for cult-related crimes over the weekend. Police are still gathering witness statements before officially adding charges of cannibalism.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
