The meeting follows a recent incident in the district in which eight people including three elderly people were killed in a mob justice setting on suspicion they were practicing witchcraft.

Paramount Chief Kyungu has since requested President Peter Mutharika to use his authority to order the country’s security agencies to stop the senseless killings.

Kyungu said Mutharika could pluck a leaf from the actions of his Tanzanian counterpart John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, ordering a ban on practice for traditional doctors who are the root cause of escalated attacks on persons with albinism.

Government has since stressed on the need for Malawi Police Service and Malawi Defense Force to join forces by arresting and prosecuting suspects behind killings.

Health minister, Jappie Mhango, who attended the chiefs’ meeting, said government is concerned with the recent killings of eight people who were thought to be witches.

“The honeymoon is now over (for perpetrators of these killings,” said Mhango.

On Epiphany Sunday at St Joseph the Worker Catholic Cathedral in Karonga, Bishop Martin Mtumbuka, blamed the rising cases of killings for alleged witchcraft on poverty and ignorance among the people which government has a duty to end.

The meeting also drew together parliamentarians, councilors and the clergy.