A senior ruling party official was recovering in a hospital on Thursday after being stoned by an angry mob who believed rumours he was harbouring vampires.
Malawi’s government has been campaigning to quell vampire rumours that have spread throughout the impoverished southern African country, saying opposition elements were using the rumours to discredit the ruling party.
Eric Chiwaya, a senior official with the United Democratic Front party was badly beaten in the attack on Wednesday night.
Hundreds of people from a township south of Blantyre stoned his house and when he tried to escape by car, they stoned him inside the vehicle, he said.
Police had to fire shots to disperse the crowd. Rumours had spread through the township that Chiwaya was harbouring vampires and had approached community leaders asking them to let them into the area.
Police said three people had been arrested for inciting violence in the incident. Horrifying stories of vampires attacking villagers in the dead of night and sucking their blood began circulating last month in Malawi.
Frightened villagers have beaten to death a man suspected of being a vampire, attacked and nearly lynched three visiting priests and destroyed an aid group’s encampment they feared was the vampires’ headquarters.
President Bakili Muluzi called the rumours unfounded and malicious, and accused unnamed opposition groups of trying to undermine him by saying his government gave aid agencies human blood in exchange for food aid. – Sapa-AP