Murder of Cameroonian girl reignites worries on trade in human parts

Murder of Cameroonian girl reignites worries on trade in human parts

Peace loving Cameroonians and Nigerians were again on November 10, 2008, taken aback with discovery of the gruesome murder of a Cameroonian lady, Ngeyi Xaverie Marie, allegedly by her concubine, a certain Nigerian born Chika Jude (See photo). The unfortunate girl was killed cold blooded and some of her body parts like eyes, private parts removed.

The macabre took place at Tamtam Weekend, a neighbourhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. Their neighbours were said to have been alerted by a pungent odour from the lovers’ room and called the police who broke into the house to find Xaverie lying in her own pool of blood with body in an advanced state of decomposition. Chika was nowhere to be found.

Information from an eye witness, Prince Fotabong, from the deceased’s village, who assisted in the burial, indicate that Chika Jude had already called the family of the Xaverie to go to his Yaoundé residence and collect the remains of their daughter given that, he ( Chika Jude), was already at large. He used phone numbers (234) 708 915 5102 and (234) 703 399 8661, it is reported, indicating that he was already in Nigeria.

The killing of Xaverie brings again to question the issue of trafficking of human parts around the globe for medical and magical purposes.

In Cameroon, a few of such stories have always come up and unfortunately, the accused are often Nigerians. This does not in anyway mean that all Nigerians are as such. Years back, another Nigerian business man in Muyuka, a town in the South-western part of Cameroon, was said to have murdered his Cameroonian girl friend to extract parts of the body for rituals back home in Nigeria.

What are human parts being used for, and what actually prompts people to kill others to extract human parts?

While other says human parts have medical/scientific value, some believe human parts are used for magic and ritual purposes, such as getting more protection and money. Brain Handwerk, writing for National Geographic Ultimate Explorer on January 16, 2004 wrote “Organ Shortage Fuels Illicit Trade in Human Parts”

According to him, “In 2002, U.S. doctors performed 24,900 lifesaving organ transplants. But for every person lucky enough to receive a transplant, two others are added to a waiting list that now features more than 80,000 people in the U.S. alone. As desperation grows, so may an illicit trade in human organs in much of the developing world”. Is that then the reason for the killing of fellow humans to extract body parts? I do not think so.

In most countries in the world, like Cameroon and Nigeria, legislation clearly bans any sales of human organs. But according to Brain “….. With demand so high, many have attempted to profit by selling organs such as kidneys, obtained from living donors tempted to give up their "spare" organs for cash.

He further writes, “In December 2003, police in South Africa and in Brazil broke up an international ring trafficking in human kidneys. The racket also involved people in Israel—and possibly even further afield.” http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0116_040116_EXPLorgantraffic.html

Another report culled from http://www.american.edu/TED/body.htm says Organs and other body parts do not necessarily have be donated or coerced from some unfortunate souls. They can be stolen.

It narrates cases in Germany where human body parts are smuggled out of hospital basements after each autopsy by some unscrupulous hospital workers and sold to local drug companies for the extraction of growth hormones. The list of items on Drug Company’s plan does not stop there.

The same online report states that ".....in an investigative report by Der Spiegel, a liberal German newsmagazine, drug companies also buy meninges --the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord -- by tens of thousands. They are used to make a valuable medication used in skin transplants. Recently, pathologists in one city began extracting muscle membranes from corpses thighs, which is then sold to firms that market reconstructive surgery. Lastly, brains and other organs are shipped to medical schools to be used by students in anatomy classes".

The report concludes that that “The loser in all this, human market, is undoubtedly the dead people and their loved ones who do not realize that with or without the permission for autopsy, the parts of the deceased are being plundered”

That is not the case in many parts of the world, for, living human are also being killed and body part removed. Others are forced to sell to some of their body parts.

Some traditional doctors and soothsayers have in some cases asked their desperate clients to bring human parts. This is often in a bid to scare away such clients but, the some of among the latter do go and kill to retrieve human parts.

In an article published in Ocnus.net on May 3, 2007 it is reported that the US had even accused China of coercing prisoners to donate their organs for transplants. .

It further reiterates “In some parts of Nigeria human parts are used for magical rites and other rituals. These parts, too, are stolen by debauched, profit-seeking individuals, and later sold to witchdoctors or pastors who perform various kinds of rites. http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_28828.shtml

According to it, in Nigeria, body parts are sold and bought mostly for fetish and magical reasons. It equally asserted that most of the horrible deals are done in the Western and Eastern parts of Nigeria.

In neighbouring Cameroon, former BBC reporter, Ange NGU Thomas on April 3, 2003 reported the arrest by police in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital of two men in possession of a bag full of human bones.

According to the report the two men told the police that the human bones were ordered by an unnamed Cameroonian professional footballer.

Barrister Chief Charles Taku (Fuatabong Achaleke) an advocate at the International War Crimes Tribunal in Arusha Tanzania says the Cameroon penal code seriously punishes trafficking in human parts. He posits that international law equally has more of general provisions in international human rights law, which prohibits cruel and degrading treatment, human trafficking and also specific previsions in bilateral and treaty law. He also advocates for the need for moral reawakening.

There is the urgent need for fellow humans stop behaving like cannibals and have respect for life.