6 Anyangwe/Extrajudicial killings of women in Africa extrajudicial killings it covers a wide range of actors clustered by the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (UN Special Rapporteur) into four general groups. One group consists of private actors operating at the behest of the government or with its knowledge or acquiescence such as government-created-andcontrolled paramilitary groups, vigilante groups, death squads, and private militias sometimes directed to kill political opponents or critics. The State has direct responsibility for the actions of these non-state actors. A second group consists of private contractors such as military security contractors, corporations and consultants engaged to perform core state activities such as prisons management, law enforcement, and interrogation of suspects. The State is also responsible for the actions of these non-state actors. A third set of persons consists of armed groups that are parties to an armed conflict. The legal responsibility for any killings committed by any of these non-state actors in violation of international humanitarian law falls directly and squarely on the armed group concerned. A fourth set of persons comprises individuals in intimate relationships and individuals in organised or controlled groups such as criminal gangs, mobs, and vigilantes. These may perpetrate gang murders, vigilante murders, ‘honour killings’, or domestic violence killings. The responsibility of the State is engaged in circumstances where these types of killings are suggestive of a pattern and the response of the government to them is inadequate or not forthcoming.12 A simplified template proposed by another source identifies two broad categories of killings by non-state actors: ‘conditioned homicide’ (killings by private individuals), and ‘mass actor killings’ (killings by groups of persons).13 ‘Conditioned homicide’ cases include death of an intimate partner resulting from systematic domestic violence in circumstances where the State has failed to act to remedy the situation14; ritual murders, especially of virgin girls, to harvest body parts for profit and for use in rituals that supposedly confer wealth or supernatural powers;15 witchcraft, ‘honour’, occult, and Albino killings,16 and prejudice-induced killings such as xenophobic killings, and killings of persons with a different sexual orientation or from an 12 ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur’ (2004) (n 1 above); ‘Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions’ (2010), Doc. A/ HRC/14/24, paras 45-47. 13 CG & HR (n 9 above) 12. 14 B Meyersfeld Domestic violence and international law (2010) 111. 15 The New Age, 2 October 2015, 25, reported the ritual murder of a 13-year old girl in Liberia, noting: ‘[C]ases of ritual murders have been recorded in several African countries, with body parts sometimes used in ceremonies believed to confer supernatural powers. Children are particularly sought out as targets.’ 16 The Mail & Guardian, 15-21 May 2015, 26, writes under the caption ‘Albinos fear death as polls near’: ‘Thought to bring luck, people with albinism are hunted in Tanzania – often by family members. … Albino body parts are associated with good luck and, as the country gears up for elections, the demand for good luck charms goes up. … Tanzania is thought to have one of the world’s largest populations of people with albinism, a congenital disorder that robs skin, eyes and hair of pigmentation … A complete set of albino body parts – including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose – can fetch up to $75 000 …’.