Banjul, 18 March-(ANA)-Up to 1,000 Gambian villagers have been abducted by "witch doctors" to secret detention centres and forced to drink potions, a human rights group says.
Amnesty International said some forced to drink the concoctions developed kidney problems, and two had died.
Officials in the police, army and the president's personal protection guard had accompanied the "witch doctors" in the bizarre roundup, said witnesses.
Gambia's government was unavailable to comment on the claims.
The human rights group asserted that many of those abducted were elderly.
The London-based rights group said the witch hunters, said to be from neighbouring Guinea, were invited into Gambia after the death of the president's aunt earlier this year was blamed on witchcraft.
Kate Allen, Amnesty's UK director, said hundreds of Gambians have fled to neighbouring Senegal for safety after seeing their villages attacked.
"The Gambian government has to put a stop to this campaign, investigate these attacks immediately and bring those responsible to justice," she said.(ANA)
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