”Allan Ssembatya was the subject of a brutal attack in 2009.” (© Jubilee Campaign)

The villages and farming communities that surround Uganda’s capital, Kampala, are gripped by fear.

Schoolchildren are closely watched by teachers and parents as they make their way home from school. In playgrounds and on the roadside are posters warning of the danger of abduction by witch doctors for the purpose of child sacrifice.

The ritual, which some believe brings wealth and good health, was almost unheard of in the country until about three years ago, but it has re-emerged, seemingly alongside a boom in the country’s economy.

The mutilated bodies of children have been discovered at roadsides, the victims of an apparently growing belief in the power of human sacrifice.

Vi skriver 2011, blundar och reflekterar över allt som är gott med världen. Tack vare den vetenskapliga metoden har vi evidensbaserad vård som inte bara räddar livet på sjuka vars sjukdomar tidigare var dödsdomar, genom vaccinationer, bättre hygien och ökad hälsomedvetenhet är chanserna större än någonsin att slippa smittorna som tidigare härjade över hela vår jord. Och då ska vi inte ens tala om bekvämligheterna som utgör vår vardag: tvättmaskiner, för bövelen; Steve Jobs arv under våra fingertoppar; charterveckor så långt hemifrån att vi för hundra år sedan knappt vågade tänka tanken; med mera.

Vi skriver 2011 och läser att en uråldrig sed på nytt ser dagens ljus i bakvattnet av religion, vidskepelse och okunskap i Uganda, den afrikanska republik som redan gjort sig känd som nationen med ett starkt stöd för att döma homosexuella till döden.

Barnoffer.

Läs det igen: barnoffer.

Orden räcker inte till. Det är 2011 och barnoffer är en industri blott tusen mil hemifrån. Världen är fortfarande för mörk.

At Kampala main hospital, consultant neurosurgeon Michael Muhumuza shows me the X-rays of the horrific injuries suffered by nine-year-old Allan.

They reveal missing bone from his skull and damage to a part of his brain after a machete sliced through Allan’s head and neck in an attempt to behead him; he was castrated by the witch doctor. It was a month before Allan woke from a coma after being dumped near his village home.

Allan was able to identify his attackers, including a man called Awali. But the police say Allan’s eyewitness account is unreliable.

Local people told us that Awali continues to be involved with child sacrifice.

For our own inquiries, we posed as local businessmen and asked around for a witch doctor that could bring prosperity to our local construction company. We were soon introduced to Awali. He led us into a courtyard behind his home, and as if to welcome us he and his helpers wrestled a goat to the ground and slit its throat.

”This animal has been sacrificed to bring luck to us all,” Awali explained. He then demanded a fee of $390 (£250) for the ritual and asked us to return in a few days.

At our next meeting, Awali invited us into his shrine, which is traditionally built from mud bricks with a straw roof. Inside, the floor is littered with herbs, face masks, rattles and a machete.

The witch doctor explained that this meeting was to discuss the most powerful spell – the sacrifice of a child.

”There are two ways of doing this,” he said. ”We can bury the child alive on your construction site, or we cut them in different places and put their blood in a bottle of spiritual medicine.”

Awali grabbed his throat. ”If it’s a male, the whole head is cut off and his genitals. We will dig a hole at your construction site, and also bury the feet and the hands and put them all together in the hole.”

Awali boasted he had sacrificed children many times before and knew what he was doing. After this meeting, we withdrew from the negotiations.

We handed our notes to the police. Awali is still a free man.

Mer information:

• BBC: Where child sacrifice is a business
• Rapporten från Jubilee Campaign: Child sacrifice in Uganda (pdf)