We plan to renovate witch camps – Gender Minister

According to her, completely closing down witch camps across the country won’t be easy since victims accused of witchcraft regard such places as their homes.

Mrs. Morrison said this during a meet-the-press encounter on Wedmesday, adding that the Ministry’s priority is to stop violence against elderly women.

Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Mamle Morrison Pulse Ghana

“What we are looking at is giving these wonderful elderly women a safe haven. What we are going to do is renovate where they are,” she said.

“A lot of them [accused witches] have refused to go home because of fear. Families have refused to accept them. And where the family even wants to accept them, the society says no.”

There have been calls for witch camps, many of which are in Northern Ghana, to be shut down following the lynching of an elderly woman at Kafaba.

Last month, the Gender Minister revealed plans to end gender-based violence and witch hunting by abolishing witch camps.

However, she has now explained that shutting down these witch camps is more difficult than it seems, since most of the inmates are reluctant to go back home.

In a bid to protect inmates of witch camps, she said a law will be enacted to prevent people from lynching them.

“When we were moving, we were thinking that we will close down the witches camp since that is the only solution we had moving from Accra,” Mrs. Morrison said.

“But when we got there we realized that it was not as easy as sitting in Accra and thinking that you have to close down the camp.”

She added: “And so we went to almost every camp in the north and the only conclusion we have come to after even making the law is how to protect these innocent ones since a lot of them have refused to go home because of fear.”