Mr Jörg Nowak, you work for the Catholic aid organization Missio Aachen and have just presented a new report on the persecution of witches - are there really still persecutions of witches in the world?

Catherine Hummel

Editor in the "Life" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Nowak: Yes, in at least 43 countries, including Ghana, Congo, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.

In recent decades, more people have been persecuted as witches worldwide than in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries.

What are the reasons for this?

Nowak: Too often people look for scapegoats.

That was the case with the witch hunts in Europe and it hasn't changed.

A second point is greed.

I remember a young woman in Papua New Guinea whom I met on a research trip.

She had inherited a property and her brothers were jealous.

They accused her of being a witch.

Sister Lorena, you live in Papua New Guinea, what do you see as the causes?

Sister Lorena: In the last 50 years, the people there have been quite suddenly confronted with the modern and digital age.

That creates uncertainty.

Many use alcohol and drugs.

And a patriarchal system meets a system in which women want to have a say.

Some men just can't take it.

Who are the perpetrators?

Sister Lorena: Among the perpetrators there are many drug addicts and alcoholics, but also people with guns or youth groups who are drunk.

But not only.

And the police don't prevent it, sometimes they even watch.

I recall the case of a youth group that pounced on a well-known rich woman and wanted her money.

When she didn't exist, they accused this woman of being a witch.

Can you become a witch very quickly?

Nurse Lorena: From one hour to the next.

You can have had a feast the day before and been an accepted member of society, and the next day you are suddenly pilloried as a witch.

What concrete mechanisms must be at work for someone to be persecuted as a witch?

Nurse Lorena: That's very irrational, you can't get any further with our western way of thinking.

For example, four months ago in Papua New Guinea, a young businessman died in an accident after driving while drunk.

He had been very popular in his village because he had donated a lot of money to the village community.

The village community was dismayed by his death and sought a scapegoat - accusing his wife of being a witch.

Under what pretense?

Nurse Lorena: Without pretense.

It's hard for us to imagine.

But I've experienced it again and again.

It is this insecurity, the pain of the unexpected that you cannot control.

You then cannot think logically and choose the irrational.

The woman was tortured and named other women, and when I found out about this the next morning, seven women were about to be killed.

That sounds insane.

Nurse Lorena: The Christina case is also very interesting.

Christina - she died of cancer last year - was a very strong personality and respected in the village community.

Her brother was ambassador in the capital Port Moresby, she looked after his house when he was away, sometimes traveling with him to Singapore.

One day her neighbor and friend died from an asthma attack.

Christina was then accused of being a witch and tortured and imprisoned for three days - until she was able to free herself by accident.

Because she hadn't helped him, even though she was so rich and experienced.

He had died because there had been no asthma spray.

Are men and children also persecuted?

Sister Lorena: I have rescued 193 people persecuted as witches in the last five years, they live in a Missio funded sanctuary.

Of these, three are men and 190 are women.

Nowak: And that alone in the Mendi region in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea with 56,000 inhabitants.

Will the perpetrators be caught?

Sister Lorena: No.

Of these 193 cases, I only know three perpetrators who went to prison.

Isn't it also dangerous to interfere?

Nurse Lorena: I just had a knife on my neck again in April.

Two women were accused of witchcraft, I was called and wanted to get them out of there when the men who wanted to torture them said: "We didn't ask you to come, go away." But I knew the men well and just stood there, although I was very afraid.

I talked to the leader and told him that I wanted to take the two women with me.

Then he put the knife to my neck.

But in the end he let the women go.

It was an easy case because I knew the people personally.

What helps against witch madness?

Sister Lorena: Working with young people and telling them: We have a future, life is the greatest gift.

Loving relationships, education, enough to eat.

How can you reach the perpetrators, do they have an understanding of their guilt?

Sister Lorena: I have seen that on rare occasions, for example: a woman had died as a result of torture and I was visiting her family.

There was her 17-year-old son, he was very restless, and after some back-and-forth, we met face-to-face a few days later.

Then he confessed that he had tortured his own mother - because his father had died and she had been held responsible.

He said, "I can't live with this guilt anymore."