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CHILDREN AS SCAPEGOATS: Nigerian churches linked to child abuse.
*The United Nations Children’s Fund says children in Nigeria are being abused and killed because some churches accuse them of being "witch children," according to the Associated Press.
The agency has named 13 churches in Eket, Nigeria associated with torturing and killing children mostly from poor families.
"The families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, "said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.
Officials say it's hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft. Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.
Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa. Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner's material worries as well as spiritual ones - eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day.
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