Central African Republic: Cannibal called 'Mad Dog' drags Muslim off bus, sets him alight and eats his leg 'to avenge murder of pregnant wife'

• The victim was attacked by a militia of around 20 machete-wielding men
• Ouandja Magloire - also known as Mad Dog - reportedly ate part of the man
• Witnesses did not intervene but filmed the attack on their mobile phones
• 'The scene made many people vomit and cry out in horror,' one witness said
• Sectarian violence has been rife recently in the Central African Republic

Horrific footage has emerged of a cannibal eating the leg of a Muslim slaughtered by a rampaging Christian mob in the Central African Republic.


The victim was hauled from a bus, battered and then stabbed before being set on fire in the capital city Bangui, according to the BBC.


In the aftermath of the incident, one of his attackers grabbed hold of his leg and then began to devour it.

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Violence: People throw stones at a car transporting two children of an ex-Seleka colonel at the 'UN crossroad' on Sunday in Bangui



Men brandish machets and knives to threaten Muslim people in Bangui



The cannibal, Ouandja Magloire - who also calls himself ‘Mad Dog’ - told a BBC reporter that his action was revenge for the murders of his pregnant wife, his sister-in-law and her baby.

He claimed that Muslims were responsible and he was angry with them.   

‘Mad Dog’ spotted his victim on a minibus and gathered a crowd of about 20 Christian youths who forced the bus driver to stop.

Witnesses did not intervene but recorded the footage on mobile phones, including the act of cannibalism.

Witness Jean-Sylvestre Tchya told news agency AFP: 'One of the individuals took hold of an arm and went and bought some bread and starting chewing on the flesh, along with his bread.

'The scene made many people vomit, and some cried out in horror.'

Another witness, Alain Gbabobou, said he watched a man wrapped the head up and proclaim that he would 'feast on it'.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, this may not have been an isolated incident, with a source speaking of more than one person being eaten.

An aid worker told the paper: 'They were taking machetes to people and burning the bodies and eating them.'

 

 

Graphic: Christians attack muslims in sectarian violence in CAR

Sectarian violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been rife in the past month and flared up again following the resignation on Friday of president Michel Djotodia, the first Muslim to rule the Christian-majority nation.

So far it has claimed around 1,000 lives, with the reports of cannibalism bringing to mind the macabre tales associated with Jean Bedel Bokassa, who ruled the CAR with an iron fist between 1966 and 1979.

He was regarded by many as a brutal dictator and was accused of eating human flesh, incorporating it in meals for visiting officials and feeding slain opponents to animals.

He died in 1996 and received a posthumous pardon in 2010.

Some Christian fighters believe that human flesh makes them invincible and put chunks of it in amulets that they wear.



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Kim Kardashian 'in tears' over taking Kanye West's surname ......''She will be known as Kim West. My wife will bear my name only!" - Kanye West insists

Rap-star Kanye West has reportedly insisted his fiancee drop her famous last name when they tie the knot


Down time: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West get food to go in Beverly Hills
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She's built an empire on her name but reality star Kim Kardashian could be set to drop her surname when she weds rapper Kanye West.

According to the National Enquirer magazine, Kanye has insisted Kim drop 'Kardashian' entirely when they tie the knot.

The glamorous star previously said she will be known as Kim Kardashian-West.

The spat with rapper Kanye apparently caused upset among Kim's family including mother Kris during a recent get-together.

A source told the National Enquirer magazine: "Everyone at the table gave a thumbs up, except for Kanye.

"He sat quiet and stern-faced, then blurted forcefully, 'She will be known as Kim West. My wife will bear my name only!"

The source added: "By the end of the night Kim was in tears because all the way home he kept ranting that he was furious about her even considering to keep the Kardashian name."

Kimye, who got engaged in October, are parents to seven-month-old daughter North, known as Nori.

They have recently been snapped enjoying a festive break on the slopes with family in Utah.

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Girls speak out against the harmful tradition of Breast Ironing in Cameroon

If given a safe environment and platform to assert themselves, girls will lead the fight to overcome breast ironing. Photograph: Tobin Jones/AFP/Getty Images


Elizabeth Mbu kept her secret for 16 years. Aged 11, her mother kneaded her naked, developing breasts with a hot stone twice a week to stop them growing. "Each time I cried as it was really painful," she says. "I didn't understand what was going on, but it was very difficult to speak about." Her mother continued the practice for a year, causing permanent damage.

Now aged 29, Elizabeth is a member of Came women and girls development organisation (Came W&G), which encourages girls to advocate against the practice of breast ironing in Cameroon. Research from 2006 suggests it affects 24% of Cameroonian girls as young as nine. Yet the practice is a closely guarded secret between mothers and daughters. "Mothers say it's normal to do it, because it prevents the girl getting pregnant early and dropping out of school, or being raped," explains Elizabeth. "When they see their girl growing breasts, they think they will attract boys – they are protecting their girls."

Mothers' concerns about teenage pregnancy are not unfounded. A UN Population Fund report found 30% of girls in Cameroon aged 20 to 24 surveyed in 2010 had given birth before they were 18. Only 39% enrol in secondary education.

Came W&G focuses on empowering girls to break their silence. Elizabeth and others organise community meetings in the capital Yaoundé, where they share their physical and mental traumas. The group lobbies traditional leaders and government representatives for change, and carries out door-knocking to persuade mothers and young victims. "It's not an easy thing to talk about publicly," says Elizabeth. "At the beginning I was nervous and cried. Girls are afraid to talk because of how people will see them or talk about their parents. But when they see you explaining your situation they get courage."

Breast-ironing victim Nchang Kazua, 28, campaigns for Came W&G in Bamenda. "Mothers are often bitter about us telling them it's bad because they think it's traditional," she explains. "The girls' testimonies can convince them of the future damage the action will cause." As well as scarring from burning-hot stones or pestles, women report problems with breastfeeding and a loss of confidence.

Came W&G's chair Margaret Nyuydzewira says mobilising younger generations is key to ending breast ironing. She wants to break into the women's associations common in Cameroonian society that help spread the practice. "We need to empower young girls to talk, advocate and sensitise the mothers, as well as traditional leaders to make laws banning breast ironing," she says.

Nyuydzewira wants to set up groups in Cameroon's 10 regions. She needs more funding to deliver advocacy training, but finds it hard to gain support. Nyuydzewira compares the situation to progress on female genital mutilation (FGM). "Look at the resources now committed for FGM – but is still has a long way to go," she says. "With breast ironing we have not even started yet. I tell the girls – you are not going to see results now, but as you keep talking things will change."

Came W&G is one of few organisations challenging breast ironing in Cameroon. Plan International works with girls on other advocacy projects. Its local PR and communication advisor Jaire Moutcheu says girls speaking publicly about issues such as early childhood marriage and rape have a strong impact. "It's down to those girls' testimonies that we were able to reinforce our relationship with the ministry of women's empowerment and family last year," she says. Following an event to mark the International Day of the Girl Child in 2012, the Cameroonian government department signed a joint action agreement with Plan. "The testimonies enabled them to understand that our work in the field is concrete," says Moutcheu.

She advises other NGOs to talk through girls' testimonies with them in detail before public events, and also to gain parental consent and arrange meetings with rights advisors and psycho-social support workers.

The youth outreach programme also focuses on empowering Cameroonian girls. Partnered with charity VSO, it provides civic education and mentoring to encourage women's participation. Programme officer Patience Agwenjang says parents can hinder girl's participation in such programmes. "They fear they will become rebels," she says. "Most of the girls receive insults or intimidation while carrying out public engagements." However, Agwenjang says by continuing the training, girls improve their communication skills and can assert themselves.

One mother says Came W&G's young advocates have already convinced her. "When I found out breast ironing was wrong, I told my daughter I was trying to do the right thing," says Magdalen Obi from Mutengene, who joined Came W&G as a result. "She understood and is not angry with me." Mother and daughter now share their story with other women by giving talks to local organisations and groups. "We tell them this is the wrong thing to do," she says.





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#Gabriella Jozwiak is a freelance journalist specialising in issues affecting children and young people. She is the Africa programmes support volunteer at Y Care International. Follow @GabriellaJ on Twitter

Wife of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail gives birth to baby from sperm smuggled into Gaza

Hana al-Za'anin conceived al-Hassan using sperm smuggled out of an Israeli jail where her husband is serving a 12-year sentence. Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters


The wife of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail gave birth on Friday to a boy born from sperm smuggled into Gaza, her family said, the first successful pregnancy of its kind in the embattled coastal enclave.

The procedure follows several similar cases last year in the West Bank, and Palestinians view such births as an act of defiance against Israel's jail policies.

"I am tired and very, very happy," said mother Hana al-Za'anin, hours after baby al-Hassan was delivered. Speaking from a hospital bed in Gaza City, she told Reuters that Israel had banned her from visiting her husband since his arrest in 2006, citing unspecified "security reasons."

Most of Gaza's 1.8 million people are barred from entering Israel for the same reason, although it allows some merchants and seriously ill people to enter.

Gaza has been run by the Islamist group Hamas since 2007. Israel has enforced a blockade on the territory and has fought two wars in the territory since the party took control.

Al-Za'anin declined to say how the sperm was conveyed out of prison, but said its journey to a medical lab in Gaza, where two specialists were waiting for it, took about six hours.

Her husband, Tamer, was arrested in an Israeli army incursion into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun and jailed for 12 years for belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group. "Today a hero was born to a hero," the prisoner's 22-year-old brother Tareq, a hairdresser, said.

Israel regards 5,000 or so Palestinian prisoners in its jails, many imprisoned for killing civilians, as terrorists.


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Doctors Pull Cockroach From Man's Ear

Don't bug out, but I think you have a large cockroach in your ear canal ...

Doctors in Australia came to the aid of a man this week who realized a large cockroach had crawled into his ear. Hendrik Helmer, of Darwin, Australia, told radio station 105.7 ABC Darwin he first noticed something was wrong when he woke up early in the morning with acute pain in his right ear.

Somehow, Helmer sensed a creepy crawler was to blame, although he wasn't yet sure exactly what it was.

"I was hoping it was not a poisonous spider," Helmer told the station. "I was hoping it didn't bite me."

As the pain worsened, Helmer attempted first to suck the creature out with a vacuum cleaner, and then to flush it out with water.

"Whatever was in my ear didn't like it at all," he noted.

Helmer eventually gave up and rushed to the Royal Darwin Hospital, where he was forced to wait 10 extremely painful minutes for the creature to die before a doctor could extract it.





"They said they had never pulled an insect this large out of someone's ear," Helmer told 105.7 ABC Darwin.

While horrifying, Helmer's experience is not unique. Following a case last year where doctors found mites and mite eggs in a 70-year-old Taiwanese man's ear, Dr. Ian Storper, director of otology at the New York Head & Neck Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told Fox News that he's seen multiple cases of in-ear cockroaches over the years.

"It's much more common to see a cockroach in the ear," Storper told Fox, claiming to have seen a "few dozen" such cases over his career. Apparently, part of the problem is that the bugs often have little trouble getting into the ear, but then are unable to walk backwards in order to get out.

Strangely, Helmer's experience is actually quite typical of this situation, according to another doctor who spoke with Fox News.

"Patients with cockroaches in their ear always show up at 2 a.m.," Dr. Richard Nelson, vice chair of emergency medicine at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Fox. "They wake up with sudden onset of ear pain."

Helmer should probably be thankful his midnight invader was only a cockroach. Last August, photos surfaced online of a Chinese patient who went to the hospital complaining of an itchy ear, only to discover that a spider had been living in there for five days.Shudder....




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