Police Arrest Sorcerers For Shrinking Men's Penises

Police in Congo have arrested 13 sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings in the country triggered by the witchcraft.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Congo's capital of some 8 million residents. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Fourteen victims, who were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers touched them to make their penis shrink or disappear, in what they said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when twelve suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

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