MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - Timely intervention by a Russian police officer stationed in Liberia as part of an international peacekeeping force saved a local boy from a ritual killing, the Russian Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry said Lieutenant-Colonel Sergei Safronov, who is in Liberia as an advisor to the national police, received information that a seven-year old was being sold as a sacrificial offering.
While considered murder in Liberia and despite campaigns to stamp it out, ritual killing is still practised by many traditional healers in the West African country.
The Interior Ministry said a female police officer posing as a buyer was offered to buy the boy for $150.
The seller was arrested after the transaction was completed and he was made to understand that he was parting with the boy for a ritual killing.
