Three Roman Catholic priests were assaulted and taken hostage for a night in southern Malawi by angry villagers who accused them of trying to steal their blood, a priest said on Thursday.
Vincent Kamoto, a Roman Catholic priest in Malawi’s Thyolo district, said the three were stopped at a roadblock and attacked by machete-wielding villagers after they had visited him at his parish.
”The priests were assaulted and had their car smashed by villagers who suspected that they were on a fishy mission to get blood from the people by force at night,” Kamoto said.
He said the three priests — who were not dressed in their church attire — were held hostage overnight and only released when some of the villagers recognised them.
Kamoto said villages in the tea-growing district believed that unnamed international organisations were taking advantage of the country’s current food crisis to barter food for their blood.
”Such beliefs are growing stronger in the area,” said Kamoto.
Nearly a third of Malawi’s 11 million people are threatened by famine, due to crop failures. He said it was the fourth time visitors to Thyolo had been attacked for similar reasons. – Sapa-AFP