A boy accused of witchcraft and abandoned to die in a forest at Upper Siloko in Edo State was found on Wednesday morning and taken to the hospital. 

Having been in the forest for months before he crawled out, the boy, whose identity was not known as of the time of filing this report, was unable to walk or talk.

In a video seen by FIJ, the boy was barely clothed; he looked malnourished and had injuries on his knees.  

“People in  the village said the boy is a witch so they had to throw him in the forest,” said Harrison Gwamnishu, an activist whose organisation, Behind Bars Human Rights Foundation, took the boy to the hospital.

“So the boy now had to crawl out of the bush and started staying in that place. He sleeps and eats there. They threw bottled water and biscuits at him and that was what he ate. He had been there for months.”

Residents did not divulge information to the Behind Bars Team when the boy was found, so the situation was reported to Ogida Police Station.

“The officers said that Upper Siloko was not in their jurisdiction so we decided to get the boy medical treatment first at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital before we return to get a police report.

“So we want to stabilise the boy first so that he can talk and then we can know more about him; where he’s from and why he was put there.”

In Nigeria, according to the BBC citing the Journal of International Women’s Studies, witches are believed to possess magical powers to fly at night and travel far and wide; transform from human beings into animals, birds, reptiles and insects; cause sudden death, disease and impotence.  

In the past, elderly women were targets of accusations of witchcraft, but now children are being assaulted and harassed over unproven allegations and superstitious beliefs that they are witches.