Starving Child Abandoned because of Witchcraft Rescued by Aid Worker

Lagos, Nigeria - The child was abandoned by his family, who accused him of being a witch doctor, according to the humanitarian worker who found him in Uyo, southeast Nigeria. Danish aid worker Anja Ringgren Loven says the child, whom she calls Hope, had been living in the streets and survived in pieces of bystanders. When he found it, he says, he was plagued with worms and had to receive daily blood transfusions to revive him.

"Thousands of children are being accused of witches and we have seen torture of children, dead children and frightened children," he wrote in Danish on Facebook, while asking for funds to pay for food, medical bills and education.

Loven is the founder of the Foundation for Education and Development of African Child Aid, created to rescue children labeled witches.

Loven says: "Hope is improving a lot, already gaining a lot of weight and looking much healthier, now we just need it to talk.

"But that will come naturally when he is out of the hospital and starts his life among all our children.

"Children strengthen together."

It is a criminal offense in the state of Akwa Ibom, where Hope was found, to label a witch child, but the practice persists.

Attempts to reach Loven and local officials were not immediately successful.

The belief in witchcraft thrives all over the world. In 2009, around 1,000 people accused of being witches in The Gambia were locked up in detention centers in March and forced to drink a dangerous hallucinogenic potion, human rights organization Amnesty International said.

In 2014, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that human rights violations were being committed in Nepal, leading to violence against women, children, the disabled and the elderly.

In 2010, CNN reported on the plight of children in Nigeria suffering horrific exorcisms and sometimes killed by their own family.

A 5-year-old boy, named Godswill, had been accused of being a witch and neglected, beaten and ostracized by his own family and community. At that time, a state official from Akwa Ibom acknowledged some cases, but said the reports of child rescues were exaggerated.

Sam Ikpe-Itauma, from the local

ren's rights and rehabilitation network, who rescues children like Godswill, told CNN: "Once a child is said to be a witch, to be possessed with a certain spiritual spell capable of transforming it Like a cat, a snake viper ... a child could cause all sorts of havoc like killing people, causing illness, misfortune to the family. "

Ikpe-Itauma does not believe in witchcraft and tries to raise awareness in communities trapped by hysteria. He believes that poverty is a key factor driving belief in witchcraft. He says: "Poverty is actually a twin sister of ignorance."

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