CAUGHT UP IN CONGO WITCHCRAFT HORROR

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witchcraft craze. She said: “I don’t like staying with my family. I suffer a lot when I stay there. I don’t feel well at home because they hit me and say bad things about me.

“If I try to do the dishes, they hit me and say, ‘Don’t touch those things because you will kill us’. They make me isolated and force me to stay outside. I want to be a nun to stop these things and make people live better lives.”

Captain Innocent Rutema Baguna is a police officer who has seen the horrors of the epidemic.

Dad-of-10 Innocent, 54, who became a police off icer in 1998, said: “I have witnessed horrible things. One of the worst was when I saw a girl who was four and was accused of being a witch.

“She was burned alive as people had accused her and then put her in a house and then set it on fire. I can never forget that. I do my best to protect the children.

“It can be a dangerous job as you have to go to places to interview people where the rebels are very active.

“My work is a matter of sacrifice but I am an orphan, my mother died when I was only six.

“So, now that I am a father, it is very important that I do my best to protect and help the children. Our future depends on it.”

SCIAF’s chief executive Alistair Dutton has just returned from DR Congo.

He said: “The lives of thousands of poor, vulnerable women and girls are being destroyed by sexual violence and exploitation. They need our help. SCIAF and our partners are on the ground