Malawi

Fighting More Than Hunger

This superstitious belief must end, and attackers must face justice, for one day we will realize we killed innocent people out of ignorance, writes Francis Botha.

Text: Francis Botha

Published 19. Jun 2026 Updated 24. Jun 2026

tre mennesker, og to av dem har en samtale — Emma Kaliya, head of the Malawi Human Rights Resources Centre (MHRRC), stands face-to-face with the Malawi Police Chief Richard Luhanga as both deliver a firm condemnation of mob violence and killings.

NCA-DCA and its partners once believed their struggle in Malawi’s Nsanje and Chikwawa districts was against hunger and poverty brought by relentless floods and droughts, the aftermath of consecutive cyclones and El Niño. But the battle proved far deeper, against superstition, misinformation, and the violence they breed. Within days, whispers spread like wildfire, fuelling mob violence that claimed innocent lives. In May alone, at least eight people were murdered, accused of causing the disappearance of men’s private parts, a superstitious belief that turned neighbour against neighbour or against any stranger.

One of the victims was Baza Sande, a 34-year-old man from Goma Village in Chikwawa. On his way to a funeral, he was set upon by a violent mob after someone claimed his genitals had vanished. Without verification, the mob quickly gathered, brutally killed and burned Baza. His father, arriving too late after a well-wisher had alerted him of the scenario, was beaten as well, accused of sharing ‘magical powers’. His unsuspecting mother, traveling by minibus, arrived to find her son’s body burning while fellow passengers took photos to share on social media. The couple’s grief was indescribable, their son gone, his home left empty and haunted by silence.

“They should have taken my son to the police for investigation. Instead, I watched him burnt alive, an image that will haunt me forever. This superstitious belief must end, and attackers must face justice, for one day we will realize we killed innocent people,” grieved Baza’s mother, Mary Sande. Yet, through her tears, she added:“I forgive them, for they acted out of ignorance born of superstition.”

Mary Sande, grieving her son Baza Sande who was killed and burnt by a mob based on superstitious beliefs.

The violence demanded immediate action. Together with the Malawi Police Service, faith leaders, politicians, and partners like the Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre, with support from DANIDA and NORAD, NCA-DCA Communications Unit hit the dusty roads of Nsanje and Chikwawa. Every gathering became a platform to condemn the killings. Communities were sensitized, misinformation challenged, and superstition confronted head-on. The deafening roar of a public address system mounted on an NCA-DCA vehicle, operated by staff and police officers, pierced through the silence of communities gripped by superstition, tragic deaths, and brutal attacks, even as camouflaged mobile police teargas choked the very crowds that had unleashed the violence.

Sheikh Amir Jaafar Kawinga of the Quadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM) strongly condemned the killings, telling journalists that both the Quran and the Bible denounce violence. “Malawi is a country of laws, and superstition cannot stand in court, otherwise we risk killing innocent lives,” he warned. He said misinformation, hate speeches, witchcraft beliefs should be strongly condemned at all levels.

Police investigations led to 27 arrests for murder and several others for incitement to violence. Faith and traditional leaders, police and politicians spoke with one voice: superstition and jealousy cannot justify bloodshed. District Commissioner for Chikwawa, Frank Mkandawire, condemned the ignorance and misinformation spread through social media, while the Malawi Police Chief vowed justice for the victims.

Faith leaders and civil society organizations, supported by NCA-DCA, launched mass awareness campaigns. They reminded communities that poverty and superstition must not be allowed to breed violence.

NCA-DCA has walked alongside the people of Nsanje and Chikwawa for decades, with DCA’s relief projects dating back to the Mozambican war of the 1980s. Yet today, the challenges are more complex. Climate shocks, shifting social dynamics, and deepening poverty continue to erode resilience. Annual floods devastate homes and livelihoods, leaving families traumatized and unable to relocate to safer uplands because poverty chains them to their ancestral, flood-prone lands.

Children, especially girls and young women, bear the brunt, trapped in cycles of early marriage and pregnancy and Gender based violence. Schools and hospitals, often destroyed by floods, remain inaccessible, fuelling illiteracy and hunger. Social protection is critical, but government resources are stretched thin. In this vacuum, communities turn to superstition and misinformation for answers to life’s hardest questions. Tragically, those ‘answers’ manifest as mob violence.

With support from ECHO, NCA-DCA leads a coalition of partners, the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) and Foundation for Civic Education and Social Empowerment (FOCESE) a secular protection-focused organization, through the cross-border Multi‑Hazard Cash, Protection and Crisis Response for Vulnerable Households in Zimbabwe and Malawi (ZIMALI) project. This initiative provides vulnerable households with cash transfers, protection services, and awareness campaigns. It is designed not only to fight hunger and climate shocks but also to dismantle harmful beliefs and safeguard communities from abuse. The timing is critical. Mob violence in Nsanje erupted just as ZIMALI was rolling out. NCA-DCA and partners recognized that addressing the root causes, poverty, vulnerability, and climate shocks, was inseparable from tackling superstition and misinformation.

Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) General Secretary Rev. Francis Mkandawire and Sheikh Amir Jafaal Kawinga of the Quadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM) brief journalists on the united role of faith leaders in confronting mob violence and killings.

According to the Commissioner of Police for Southern East Region in Malawi, Frank Kumukumu, the brutal killing of Baza and seven others is not only a family’s tragedy but a community’s wake‑up call. It calls for the urgency of swift; multisectoral action, police, faith leaders, civil society, and government working hand in hand to raise awareness, provide protection, and shift perceptions.

Baza’s house remains locked, only a stick and two reeds where he once hung his mosquito net still stand, a haunting reminder to his parents of the nights they watched him sleep under its protection against deadly malaria.

Yet the question lingers: If superstition continues to thrive amid poverty and climate shocks, how many more innocent lives must be sacrificed before communities choose mindset change?

Fighting More Than Hunger

Read more about our work in Malawi