Mob kills three alleged witches in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda, June 10 (UPI) -- Police in the Ugandan district of Kitgum say an angry mob recently killed three women accused of using witchcraft to kill a taxi driver.

District Police Chief Charles Oumo said the women were stoned and burned to death at a regional refugee camp after residents blamed them for the mysterious circumstances under which an area taxi driver died, Sky News reported Sunday.

"They thought he was bewitched by someone who had sprinkled a potion on his boda-boda (motorcycle)," Oumo said of the mob.

He added that while no official cause of death had been determined, the mob needed little evidence to execute the three women.

"They hunted down the top three and a mob descended on them," he said of the incident. "They beat them with stones, sticks and axes before setting them ablaze, still alive."

Sky News said residents of the East African nation routinely blame deaths on alleged witches.