Nigerian Skinny, Little Kid Accused Of ‘Witchcraft’ Rescued
KABUL: (MEP) A two year old skinny and naked Nigerian child was found and rescued by a Danish aid worker, eight months after he was abandoned by his family, who accused him of being a witch.
During the past eight months, the worm-ridden boy, who is now called Hope, slept rough and scavenged on whatever he could find on every nook and cranny of streets in a town in the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom.
“As soon as we heard that the child was only two to three years old we did not hesitate. We immediately prepared a rescue operation,” said Anja Ringgren Lovén, the founder of the African Children’s Aid Education and Development Foundation.
After a few days of nutritional and medical treatment, Hope, who is now being cared for by Anja, attained a stable condition, but he needed blood transfusion and an urgent treatment for his worms.
“I travelled alone to Nigeria where I met children who had been tortured and beaten almost to death because they were accused of being witches and therefore left alone on the street,” she said, adding that “education is the key in the fight against superstition.”
Thousands of Nigerian children are accused of practicing witchcraft and rejected by their families, According to Anja.
