Child witchcraft is the superstitious belief that children can be witches and wizards or that infants can or do magically turn themselves into birds or insects to suck blood or mysteriously inflict harm. It is the belief that children have evil powers, which they can use to destroy people, particularly their family or neighbours.

On Tuesday, January 5 2010, at about 7 am some armed police officers and soldiers led by two local criminals, Edward Uwah and Ethelbert Ugwu, stormed my family compound in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They arrested me and my aging father. We were detained briefly at the local police station in Ahiazu before we were transfered to the zonal police headquarters in Umuahia.

Nigerian Humanists have won the latest round in an ongoing battle with witch hunters. Today, 4 Feb. 2010, the Federal High Court in Calabar struck out the case brought against Leo Igwe, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Representative in West Africa, by Helen Ukpabio of the Liberty Gospel Church.

The world-wide reaction and publicity that followed the release of the award-winning documentary, Saving Africa’s Witch Children, has been a source of consternation to those whose activities were exposed by the film. This film demonstrated the scale of the problem caused by the continued labelling of children as witches in South Eastern Nigeria.

The worldwide problem of belief in witchcraft and the appalling human rights abuses to which it leads received a boost in September at the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Nigerian Humanist Movement was founded in 1996 to promote Humanism, defend secularism and provide a sense of community to all non religious and freethinking Nigerians - atheists, skeptics, rationalists, agnostics and freethinkers. Nigeria is a deeply religious society. And in most cases people relate, interact and marry along religious lines.

IHEU representative Leo Igwe reports that the police in Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria have arrested a "prophet" named Gideon Peter over the alleged murder of two children during an attempt to exorcise them of witchcraft. The arrest is positive news for IHEU’s campaign to stamp out child abuse committed by so-called witch hunters.

IHEU has appealed to authorities in Nigeria to stop the police harrasment of Leo Igwe, IHEU Representative for West Africa. Igwe and members of his family have been subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment by local police involving multiple arrests on unsubstantiated charges since 2007. Most recently, Leo Igwe and his father, Oliver Igwe, were arrested on Tuesday, January 5.

The Nigerian Humanist Movement is holding a national conference on “Witch Hunts, Christian Fundamentalism and Child Abuse” on October 21 and 22, 2009, at the University of Uyo Community Center. Participation is open to everyone.

Highlighting the crisis of children accused of witchcraft in Africa, IHEU representative Leo Igwe spoke at the public advocacy workshop organized by the Child Rights Brigade International, on September 30, 2009 at the Special Children Centre in Uyo Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.