(Thumbnail image: CNN)
BY CHANCE SEALES
“His name is God’s Will and he’s been beaten and abandoned — cast out by his family and society at large, accused of being a witch.”
Nigerian kids as young as 5 being accused of witchcraft — beaten, burned and scalded by pastors. The evidence: something as simple as a medical condition or a loved one dying. But what’s usually at the root: money.
The routine involves a pastor picking a young target, praying for them, then deeming it a lost cause. KSHB and The Dr. Jays blog have more details.
"Once a child is said to be a witch, to be possessed with a certain spiritual spell capable of making that child to transform into, like cat, snake, vipers, a child could cause all sorts of havoc like killing of people, bringing about diseases, misfortune into family."
That’s where the pastors come in.
“…[T]hey can help ‘cure’ these children and charge fees — anywhere from $300 to $2,000 — for their deliverance. Eventually, they tell the families the children are too far gone for deliverance and say the children should instead be abandoned.” (DrJays.com)
There are efforts to save the abandoned kids. CNN talks to an orphanage owner named “Sam” who has taken in more than 200 accused witches. He blames the hunts on ignorance and poverty.
REPORTER: “With new cases every week, Sam is simply overwhelmed.”
SAM: “I have become sick sometimes when I see a child. I cannot take the child to the center because the center is already accumulated with a lot of children and you don’t have spaces for children.”
Child advocates have achieved minor success — finally pressing the Nigerian government to denounce the witch hunts. But The Zim Diaspora blog says that’s not likely to help very much.
“Police have difficulty apprehending guilty parties — usually the parents or preachers who exploited them — since villagers won’t cooperate.”
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