FIACAT’s Appeal of the month - Outline of the case
October 2003
DEMOCRATIC REP OF CONGO : Torture and death of an eight-year-old child
Children who are accused of witchcraft suffer a particularly tragic fate. At best, they undergo terrifying exorcism ceremonies, endangering their lives and their mental stability, at worst they are got rid of, murdered in particularly cruel and totally inhuman circumstances.
The phenomenon of children being thought to be ’witches’ is widespread in Africa. It exists in different forms, particularly in Benin, Nigeria, Liberia, Angola, South Africa, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Difficult or maladjusted children are sometimes considered by their parents or relations as having evil powers and are driven out of their family, marginalised by society or placed in re-education centres. They frequently suffer abuse and ill-treatment.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo there has been an increase in this phenomenon, in a social context where people’s lives have been turned upside down by the upheavals in civil society.
The current job situation, with only 5-10% of the population in paid employment, means that the burden of caring for a family is shouldered by a very small proportion of the population. The war and AIDS have resulted in an ever-growing number of orphans.
Changes in social customs have disrupted family life, and ’African solidarity’ can no longer deal with the situation.
Before 1990, there was hardly any talk of child witches in Kinshasa. Old people were sometimes said to be ’witches’, particularly if they were no longer economically productive.
The children who are now being accused of witchcraft are in the same situation : they become an unproductive burden for parents who are no longer able to feed them. The children said to be ’witches’ are most often from very poor families.
A major study carried out by the Congolese section of the ICCB (International Catholic Child Bureau) points out that this alarming situation demonstrates the urgent need for large-scale action to value and promote the fundamental rights of this particularly vulnerable group.
There are existing legal instruments, such as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Article 19, which requires the signatory States to ’take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation …’
ACAT in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has told us of a case of torture and murder carried out in the district of Mont Ngafula, Kinshasa/DRC, of a young boy considered to be a ’witch’.
The victim, Nsumbu, aged eight, died on 27 June 2003 at the university clinic where he was taken, following torture and burns to his body that he had suffered three days earlier.
The alleged perpetrators of this attack were said to have accused Nsumbu of being a witch following the death of a member of their family, a young student named Kabibi. On the date of the ceremony marking 40 days after her death, the brother and sister of the dead student lured Nsumbu into a trap, poured petrol over him and set him alight.
This murder could have been prevented if the police at the Kindele police station, who knew of the danger threatening Nsumbu, had taken steps to protect him.
According to recent information, three members of the family who attacked him, who are suspected of having helped to plan the murder, have been arrested and placed in custody, and three other members of the same family have disappeared.
Attached :
An outline of the case for your personal information
A letter to be sent to the addressee indicated, adding your name, address and signature
A prayer, in your concern for this situation to entrust it to God.
