Dispatches - S1E0

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Return to Africa's Witch Children

Series 1, episode 0

A year ago Dispatches told the story of how children in Africa's Niger Delta were being denounced by Christian pastors as witches and wizards and then killed, tortured or abandoned by their own families. The film, which prompted international outrage against a practice conducted in the name of Jesus, forced the Nigerian authorities and the UN to act. Child Rights legislation came into force making it illegal to brand children as witches and some pastors were arrested. Financial support also poured in to assist a small British charity providing the only safe refuge for hundreds of youngsters attacked after claims that they were possessed by the Devil. In Return to Africa's Witch Children, Dispatches reveals what happened to some of the children and church leaders who originally featured, and discovers that even now children as young as two are still being stigmatised as witches and treated as outcasts.