'They accused me of killing and eating my grandmother': Agony of Congo's 50,000 'child witches' who are brutally exorcised to 'beat the devil out of them'
There are around 50,000 children living on the streets of Kinshasa, all abandoned after being accused of witchcraft
The communities say they are capable of horrific crimes, drinking the blood and eating the flesh of their relatives
But a lot of the time the children are rejected simply because their parents cannot afford the extra mouth to feed
It means the children - some newborn - are left to fend for themselves, turning to crime and prostitution to survive
But there are people working to help these desperate children, and the UN's new 'global goals' hope that the drivers of this horrific tradition, poverty and a lack of education, will be completely eradicated in the next 15 years
MailOnline has visited Kinshasa to find out more about this horrific belief, and the impact it has on the children
By Nick Fagge In The Democratic Republic Of Congo For Mailonline
Published: 06:09 EST, 19 October 2015 | Updated: 09:43 EST, 19 October 2015
Squeezing a toddler’s eyeballs and shoving his thumb into her tiny nose a Catholic priest purges a child of the devil, one of many exorcisms he carries out every day.
Flicked with holy water, her face smeared with olive oil and poked violently in the stomach, two-and-a-half-year old Angel bursts into tears as she is rid of the evil spirits that lurk within her.
The child wriggles to free herself but her mother holds on firmly, insistent that she endures the exorcism to protect her from the sorcery that many in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) believe controls their lives.
Angel and Grace, an 11-month-old baby exorcised the same day, have been ‘saved’ by the ceremony, the devil banished, and for now they remain safe in their homes.
But tens of thousands of other children in this troubled central African country have been branded ‘child’ witches and flung out onto the streets by their families into a life of destitution, violence and abuse.
MailOnline ventured into the frightening world of the occult in this African heartland, famously described as the ‘heart of darkness’, as part of series examining the challenges facing the United Nations trying to help these children.
In the capital Kinshasa, at the Gallicane Catholic Church, Father Alexis Katziota Mungala talks almost matter of factly of his work releasing thousands of children from the devil.
Exorcism is a daily ritual he performs in his church.
‘These witches they eat human flesh, they drink human blood,’ Father Alexis told MailOnline.
‘It is the work of the devil. Witchcraft kills the love within the child. It fills them with hate, it makes them eat their father, fight with their brother.
‘Witchcraft is part of our tradition; it is part of Congolese culture.
‘Children can become infected with sorcery but we carry out exorcisms to help children find their families again.’
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