Cannibalism horror in Australia’s backyard as jungle fighters wield machetes and pose with a severed human foot: ‘This is our meat’
Papua New Guinea’s government has condemned “horrific acts of cannibalism” in the country, fueled by disturbing images of a group of warriors preparing to eat human body parts.
A video shot in the remote jungle highlands of neighboring Australia shows a tribal warrior ‘licking’ a severed human foot while another holds up an amputated hand.
The footage shows a group of men armed with bows, arrows and machetes, holding human body parts.
One of them smiled at the camera as he held the foot to his mouth and said, “We are the mafia. We cut him off.”
According to local media reports, one of the men said: ‘This is our meat. We will cook it and eat it.’
In one photo, a man holds up a bloody body part while another licks his lips.
Images from the creepy video were published on the front page of PNG’s Post Courier newspaper on January 6.
The video shows a group of men armed with bows, arrows and machetes holding severed body parts and one of them smiles as he holds the foot to his mouth and says ‘we are the mafia, we cut it off’
According to local media reports, one of the men said: ‘This is our meat. We will cook it and eat it’
The video was filmed about a month ago in Saki Village, Goilala District in PNG’s Central Province, north of the national capital Port Moresby, after a fight between two brothers turned fatal.
The video was filmed about a month ago in Saki Village, Goilala District in PNG’s Central Province, north of the national capital Port Moresby, after a fight between two brothers turned fatal.
The younger brother allegedly killed his older sibling and the violence escalated, leaving seven dead and some maimed.
Police Minister Peter Tsiamalili said he was deeply disturbed by images that appeared to depict “horrific acts of cannibalism”.
“Such barbarism does not define us as a people or a nation,” he told AFP.
“These barbaric actions by a group of young people not only shock our collective conscience, but also pose a serious threat to the social values that bind us as a nation.”
Police have now traveled to Goilala, where communities are clustered around an alluvial gold mining camp and was the scene of a catastrophic landslide in which people were buried alive five years ago.
Papua New Guinea Law Society president Hubert Namani denounced the barbarity after seeing the gruesome images.
“I condemn the heinous acts of violence, mutilation and cannibalism circulating on social media,” he said.
These inhumane acts are a stark reminder that the situation in the country requires immediate attention.”
Historically, cannibalism has been documented among a small number of tribes in remote parts of Papua New Guinea.
One group, the Fore people, practiced cannibalism in ceremonies in the 19th century and into the 1950s.
Women cut, cooked, and distributed body parts to female relatives, who often shared them with their children. The brains were a special delicacy.
But when Australian authorities took over administration of Papua New Guinea, one of their first acts was to ban cannibalism.
Goilala, where communities are clustered around an alluvial gold mining camp, is located north of Port Moresby in a remote jungle, where a catastrophic landslide occurred five years ago that buried people alive
Hubert Namani, president of the PNG Law Society, expressed his horror at the incident in a press release
In response to Hubert Namani’s statement on the latest incident, the PNG Member for the Goilali Region has hit back, saying it brings discredit to PNG and its community (above)
Then the open celebration of bodies disappeared and the practice – at least publicly – disappeared in the early 1960s.
US President Joe Biden made a blunder in 2024 when he joked that his fighter pilot uncle might have been eaten by cannibals after being shot down during World War II.
“He was shot in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there were really a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape later dismissed the comment as “loose” talk on the part of the president.
Reacting to Hubert Namani’s statement on the latest incident, the Member for the Goilali Region has hit back.
Casmiro Aia called on Mr Namani to apologize to his community, saying he had misused the word “cannibalism” to describe an unverified and isolated incident.
He said the actual incident was just a violent altercation between brothers when one was killed and dismembered, and calling it cannibalism brought PNG into disrepute.