Killing of ‘Evil Baby’; In Nigeria Infanticide is a Ritual Practiced by Bassa Komo Community

In Nigeria, there is a cult that practices the killing of Babies. According to them 'Evil Baby' will bring misfortune to their Community. David and his sister, Davida, have been branded evil by his community because they are twins.

The Kaida village on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja has a strange ritual of killing innocent babies. People of the Bassa Komo ethnic group kill babies that are perceived to be 'Evil Baby'.

• Twins are believed to have bad spirits that will bring misfortune upon their communities.
• The killing of such "evil" babies takes many forms, including being suffocated, crushed, poisoned with a deadly mixture of plants and herbs, or left to die.
• Christian missionary Steven Olusola Ajayi opened the Vine Heritage Home in 2004, a shelter for so-called "evil" children.

Among those labelled 'Evil Baby' and killed are :

• Babies who are twins, triplets and other multiple-birth babies; albinos; babies born with cleft palate; children with enlarged heads.
• babies whose upper teeth appear before the lower teeth
• babies whose mother died during or shortly after childbirth.

"They believe that leaving a child who lost his mother, that he is going to spread his evil that he used to kill the mother among the villagers, so they don't want them to live," Ajayi said.