Heart-breaking images show rescue of starving two-year-old accused of witchcraft

By: Ishita Sharma
Feb 26, 2016, 17:25 IST


Harrowing pictures show how a starving two-year-old Nigerian boy was rescued after being discovered naked and wandering the streets because his family thought he was a witch. The boy, now named Hope, was found emaciated and riddled with worms after being forced to live off scraps thrown to him by passersby for eight months. 

He was finally rescued after being discovered unclad and wandering the streets by Anja Ringgren Loven, a Danish woman living in Africa. Horrified by Hope's condition, she bent down and began feeding him and giving him water from her bottle.  She then wrapped the disorientated and sick toddler up in a blanket, holding him in her arms, before taking him to the nearest hospital for treatment. 

"Thousands of children are being accused of being witches and we've both seen torture of children, dead children and frightened children," she wrote in Danish on Facebook, making an appeal for donations to help pay the young boy's medical fees. 

Two days after asking for help with Hope's medical fees, she received $1 million in donations from around the world.