There is a widespread belief in sorcery in PNG where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune, illness, accidents or death.
Locals determined to get revenge on the profiteering witch doctors sought their own supernatural training from village chiefs, using their "possessed" bush knives to hunt down and kill seven people since April, the report said.
"We ate their brains raw and took body parts such as livers, hearts, penis and others back to the hausman (traditional men's houses) for our chief trainers to create other powers for the members to use," one of those arrested said.
The killings saw police raid Biamb village last week and arrest 29 people, eight of them women.
A local expert in the supernatural cited by the newspaper said the way the group operated was different from traditional PNG hausman practice, which would normally see specific people trained to hunt a sanguma (sorcerer).
"But these people never kill sorcerers in broad daylight, mutilate and eat sorcerers' flesh, livers, and hearts or make soup from the penis of sorcerers," he said.
"This is insane and the cannibalism (of this group) goes beyond the local culture."
Madang provincial police Commander Anthony Wagambie urged other followers of the group, believed to number more than 1,000, to surrender.
"It is the tip of the iceberg and more needs to be done to educate locals to eradicate the movement," he told The National.
"Police cannot do it alone. It requires collective effort from government, responsible agencies, non-governmental organisations and the churches to work together."
Source: agencies
