Witches are being killed by Islamists

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”

― William Shakespeare

(Barrons)  Boko Haram jihadists killed a group of women in Nigeria after accusing them of witchcraft following the death of a militant commander's children in northeast Borno State, relatives, residents and a woman who escaped have told AFP.

Accusations of witchcraft are not uncommon in Nigeria, a religious conservative country almost equally divided between the mostly Muslim north and Christian south.

Northeast Nigeria is at the heart of a conflict involving security forces and Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province jihadists that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Last week, around 40 women were held in a village near Gwoza town on the orders of jihadist commander Ali Guyile whose children suddenly died overnight, according to relatives and a woman who escaped.

In interviews conducted on Sunday and Monday, they said the commander had accused the women of causing the children's deaths through witchcraft.

Guyile, a 35-year-old commander asked his men to arrest the women from homes known to practise witchcraft, said Talkwe Linbe, one of the accused women.

Linbe said she managed to escape and fled to the regional capital Maiduguri after the killing of 14 women on Thursday.

The relatives and residents AFP interviewed did not specify how the women died but the term they used in Hausa usually refers to jihadists slitting victims' throats.

Barrons.com