It sounds unbelievable but is true. In over 40 communities located in the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the people still kill babies that are perceived to be evil. These include twins that are believed to have bad spirits that will bring misfortune upon their communities.

The killing of such “evil” babies takes many forms, including being suffocated, crushed, poisoned with a deadly mixture of plants and herbs, or left to die, a VOA News report said.

Among those labeled evil and killed are twins, triplets and other multiple-birth babies; albinos; babies born with cleft palate; children with enlarged heads; babies whose upper teeth appear before the lower teeth; and babies whose mother died during or shortly after childbirth.

“They believe that leaving a child who lost his mother, that he is going to spread his evil that he used to kill the mother among the villagers, so they don’t want them to live,” according to Christian missionary Steven Olusola Ajayi, who for more than 20 years has been working with 40-plus communities with traditions of ritual infanticide in the Abuja area.

One of those interviewed by VOA News, Magaji, said: “Our people believe that these children come from the evil one and no one wants it. We have a god we call Otauchi and we offer the children to that god. We suspect those children to be witches or wizards. That’s why we eliminate them.”

Missionary Ajayi, who has since 2004 operated the Vine Heritage Home, Abuja, a shelter for so-called “evil” children, presently has 119 children at the rescue centre.

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