Residents of the African country of Malawi are in a state close to panic, several dozen people have already said that they were attacked by "midnight vampires" and sucked blood from them. People are so frightened that seven people have already been killed by vigilante groups, who were suspected of vampirism.
The threat became so serious that UN workers and US Peace Corps volunteers were withdrawn from Malawi. The vampire hysteria in Malawi began in September, we reported about it on the website, and it looks like it hadn't subsided at all by December, although the UN staff decided to return after the September heat.
Local residents assure that all this is not hysteria or rumors, but real facts. Jamia Bauleni, 40, says that something alien entered her house and attacked her, and then began to suck her blood. Jamia lives in the village of Ngolongoliva in the south of the country and this village has been at the center of the vampire hysteria.
- This is not a rumor, it sucked my blood, I know that. I was lying on the bed at night and suddenly I saw a light in the corner under the roof. I could not move my arm or leg. And then something severely pierced my hand and I felt pain.
Jamia, who works selling wild pea stew, says that before she passed out from blood loss, she heard the sound of someone running across the floor. After that night, the woman was taken to the hospital and underwent treatment there, taking medications and vitamins.
She did not inform the authorities that she was attacked, but there are many such cases in the area without her. They believe in witchcraft, vampires and black magic, and people are eager to take revenge on those who attacked them.
Another victim is 27-year-old Florence Kalung. She says that she slept at night in her house next to her husband and suddenly saw the light, as if a fire had been lit in the house. Then she heard the sound of the door being opened, and then a severe pain began in her finger, as if a needle had been stuck in it.
Entrepreneur Orlendo Chaponda narrowly escaped death from vigilantes who saw a "blood sucker" in his house. He says he was lucky they didn't get to him. Orlendo called the police, who chased people away from his house.
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“They don't really care if you’re a vampire or not, they envy the rich and will attack anyone and call him a vampire if they have a car,” Orlendo says.
Malawi's National Blood Transfusion Service - the only institution with government approval to collect blood from donors for hospitals - says rumors of vampires have also affected their work.
- This problem has greatly affected us. It prevents us from doing our job and collecting blood from donors. says Brydon Mbaya, director of the service.
For attacks and lynching attempts in Malawi, 250 people were arrested and more than 40 in neighboring Mozambique, where the vampires were rumored to have come from. Malawi President Peter Mutarika was forced to intervene in the situation.
“There is no evidence of a vampire attack,” he says. “But these false rumors are destabilizing the area. Those who spread such rumors will face our laws.
Meanwhile, the vampire riots have crippled the country's tourism industry. Fewer and fewer Western tourists are going there and therefore the budget of poor Malawi will miss a lot of superfluous money.
