‘Hyenas’ flee into caves as cops hunt 9 sex pests Eric Aniva
Eric Aniva

Eric Aniva

Lilongwe — Police in Malawi’s Nsanje district are on the hunt for nine men, notorious for raping young girls as part of an cultural cleansing tradition, Nyasa Times reports.

The sex predators, known as “hyenas”, are believed to be hiding out in caves across the district in an effort to evade police.

The development follows the arrest of Eric Aniva, an HIV-positive hyena who has admitted to having sex with over a hundred underage girls for money.

Cuthbert Kaonga, an officer at the Nsanje Police Command, claims that Aniva was arrested after he gave conflicting reports to officers and reporters from the BBC.

“Aniva told us that he stopped the practise long ago, yet he has told the BBC that he continues practising it so we will find out the truth,” Kaonga stated.

Malawian President Peter Mutharika had earlier issued a statement ordering Aniva’s arrest and calling for an inquiry into the role of the parents involved.

Aniva should “be investigated for exposing the young girls to contracting HIV, and further be charged accordingly”, Mutharika added. “Harmful cultural and traditional practices can’t be accepted.”

Women’s rights activist Emma Kaliya has called on security operatives to detain parents and villagers who still take part in the outdated sexual cleansing ritual, which sees underage girls as young as 12 being sent to “initiation camps” before puberty. Here, adolescents are taught how to have sex and are forced into sexual intercourse, over three days, after the start of their first period.

The ritual is believed to train girls to become good wives and to protect them from disease or misfortune that could befall their families or their village.

Meanwhile, Malawi police have arrested an HIV-infected man who was paid to have sex with more than 100 adolescent girls as part of a traditional ritual marking their passage to womanhood, officials said on Tuesday.

Eric Aniva, from the southern district of Nsanje, was held after giving a media interview confessing to have slept with the girls for a fee of between four and seven dollars, paid by each of their families.

The little-known local practice lasts three days and is performed in southern Malawi by men known as “hyenas” at the request of a girl’s parents after her first menstruation.

The ritual is believed to train girls to become good wives and to protect them from disease or misfortune that could fall on their families or their village.

“Aniva was arrested on Monday after he was summoned to my office,” district commissioner Gift Lapozo told AFP.

In a BBC interview broadcast last week, Aniva confessed to being infected with HIV and sleeping with at least 100 girls without using protection.

“Some girls are just 12 or 13 years old, but I prefer them older,” he said.

“All these girls find pleasure in having me as their hyena. They actually are proud and tell other people that this man is a real man, he knows how to please a woman.”

It was unclear over how many years Aniva had been a “hyena”.

Malawian President Peter Mutharika had earlier issued a statement ordering Aniva’s arrest and calling for an inquiry into the role of the parents involved.

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