About 3,000 people, most of them elderly women, has been accused of witchcraft and lynched in Tanzania from 2005 to 2011, according a local human rights group.
According to the report from the organization, Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) the victims were lynched by frightened neighbors who thought they were witches, according to news agency AFP.
"Each year an average of 500 people, especially older women with red eyes are getting killed in Tanzania because they are suspected of being witches," the report said.
Human rights group explained that red eyes are seen as a sign of witchcraft, while it actually is often occurs as a result of cow dung is used as fuel in areas with scarce resources. Many of the locals are of the opinion that witchcraft is the cause of everything from infertility, poverty, business failure, famine and earthquakes.
The worst affected provinces are Mwanza and Shinyanga north of the country. For instance, the 242 killed victims between January 2010 and January last year happened in Shinyanga province alone, wrote LHRC in his report.Â
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