Abidjan---An angry mob killed a man wrongly suspected of kidnapping children in Ivory Coast, which has been gripped by panic after a string of child murders and mutilations, police said Friday.
The man, Cherif Olabi, was "violently attacked (Thursday) on the basis of a false rumour," national police spokesman Dorgeles Gnawa told AFP. "Sadly he died Friday of his injuries."
A mob went after Olabi, a Nigerian national, in the capital city Abidjan based on a rumour that he was carrying a bloody bag containing the decapitated heads of four children.
In recent months, police have logged at least 25 child kidnap-murders throughout the west African nation, which prompted authorities to urge the public not to take justice into its own hands.
In many of the murders the mutilated body was found, often without its head or genitals, raising fears of a wave of ritual sacrifices.
The impoverished west African nation, which has suffered a decade of political and military crisis, is set to hold a presidential vote in October.
Rumours circulate widely during election years of kidnappings, notably of albinos, for ritual sacrifices.
AFP
