Ten-year-old Jane Essien, twelve-year-old Abigail Monday, and eleven-year-old Godswill Okon are currently living in a makeshift camp in Akwa Ibom, Southern Nigeria. They can not return to their parents or live normal lives like other children because they were abandoned by their families, condemned as witches. Their stories are among those of the other victims of witch-hunting in the black continent. Among the untold stories of the world — pathetic and traumatising.

I met them at an event organised by Unicef Nigeria.

Jane told me how, some years back, her mother accused her of witchcraft and attacked her with a saw before driving her out of the house. Jane went to live with a mad woman who lived in a nearby market. The women fed her till someone came and brought her to the camp.

Abigail was taken to a church by her father, for prayers. There, the prophet of God identified her as a witch. As her father drove her out of the house, Abigail lived on the streets for a while before someone brought her to the camp.

Godswill was taken to a church where a pastor said he was a wizard. After he was driven out his home, a police officer saw him and took him in for a few days before bringing him to the camp.

These three children were lucky. Many children in the society who were accused of witchcraft never lived to tell their stories. They were tortured to death, bathed with acid, abandoned to die by the roadside or in the bush. Jane, Abigail, Godswill and hundreds of children in the Akwa Ibom camp carry the scars of the witch-hunting campaigns that have been going on across Nigeria and many other parts of Africa.

Continues: http://www.independentworldreport.com/2010/04/witches-of-africa/