When she was eleven years old, Aline Kabilia’s step–uncle tried to force her to drink acid, and then poured it on her face and right arm.
Aline’s family believed she was a witch, who was to blame for their poverty and her half–brother’s ill health. The brutal acid attack was an attempt to exorcise the demons from the young girl, after starvation and repeated beatings had failed.
There are two factors driving the witch children phenomenon. Congolese society has collapsed, and the number of churches has massively increased. Over 2,000 new Pentecostal churches have opened in the past few years, each offering salvation to a people desperate for hope after years of bloodshed.
According to Trish Hiddleston, a child protection officer with UNICEF: “The root causes are desperate poverty, and an increase in evangelism, which is a reaction to that poverty. Convenient excuses like sorcery or demon possession are used, whether purposely or unconsciously, to get rid of unwanted children.”
http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/volume119issue2_more.php?id=589_0_26_0_CThis the first I have read about this chapter of Christianity gone awry, who are the missionaries responsible for this? Where are they from?