And welcome again to rewind im laura carro. In this series were revisiting some of the best documentaries on aljazeera english since we launched more than a decade ago back in 2013 the people in power series traveled to west africa to expose the shocking story of how young gone and children were being murdered because of the mistaken belief they were possessed by evil spirits no one knows the exact numbers of these ritual deaths across gonna became a fast so and parts of nigeria but some believe it could be in the thousands the killing of these socalled spirits children is the consequence of ancient customs shaped by ignorance and poverty in this compelling Program Award winning gone then Investigative Reporter and the last r m a o n a s used hidden cameras to bring some of those behind these killings to justice from 2013 his spirit child some west african communities have branded children born deformed or with disabilities as evil spirits see him as a drain on limited resources. To perform rituals and prepare poisonous concoctions to kill them thousands of defenseless children have been made this week. My name is a mass area and mass i am an Investigative Reporter because of the work i do i never show my face. Ive come to non being done now to investigate disparate child phenomena food is scarce here even children must wait for the family to. Mount a long grey season has come all families move into the big city looking for work or to sell the animals. Living on the edge of survival the birth of a disabled child is greatly feared its seen as a terrible burden on their family an extra month to feet their child wont be able to help in their field and neither will its mother who will have to divulge precious time to escape out of this fear and tradition has gone they believe that such a child is a spirit child an evil presence that must be destroyed before it threatens the survival of the family it doesnt even need to be disabled image child in a family where things going wrong can be branded as evil and when this happens all this in the community known as compulsion mean paul didnt poison the child. Through. A marked outward. Is it even if. That hugely. Emotional. Intellectual. Well. They will. Abuse. Im ok but. Who are. There to. You my lad my man of. My mid. I don know how to solve that i may dismiss you can. Add by saying laziness it is done a u. T. A war. And. Im heading for a place known locally as they will forests because the bodies of spiritual ruin have been buried here for centuries. This stone is here at the only indication to show that children were varied here the concoction men had their bodies under their stones to prevent us from digging them up this forest remains green and Still Standing because the local people are afraid they are scared that the evil forest would eat them up local and jews have often used dialogue to talk to Community Members to stop this practice advocacy has been successful to some extent but has not been able to eradicate this from the community. We are in a more democratic than now Law Enforcement must take over to stamp out this once and for all but we cant find any record of anyone ever been arrested for what can only be described as a dreadful crime ive come to Police Headquarters in bogota than that to meet their original command and find out why it is the very thing to do it is a very difficult thing to do even if you good information one is know where it is happening who are behind and who in Current Events so you can mount machine and good and its unfortunate we have no idea why this is happening who are behind or these and why or this why the of morgan obviously. It is being done on the quiet and you never know. If the police can find everything maybe i can my plan is to find some concoction men to invent a socalled program and see if they will diagnose it as an evil spirit then i aim to catch them in the act of trying to poison it a colleague has agreed to let us use coffee is 18 month old son to play the part of my spirit job when they come to do the deed but obviously i cant risk his life so at the last moment we will be straight with the contents of this suit a similar looking of a child made from silicon it movie props company in london. Shortly social came for. My 1st step is to integrate into the community im moving to see the historical heartland of this bridge you know me where i have rented this property. Would separate buildings and 2 entrances its perfect for my plan. In 3 weeks of investigation ive already met 14 individuals spread over an area the size of libya from loading them at a neighboring booking. Person who admittedly did kill spirit children before him of this said they were willing to poison my chops now its time to do a deal with one of them a broker who has a good beat ive told him that hes my son was born nothing has gone right but ive lost money and my cats have broken down now we are meeting to make the final arrangements. To lend it up. Here lend it to you. 11 emphatic and never let. Me take you at that extent about 2 and more time that im. Doing really good you. Must pack it in and allow you. To do what. I was told. Morning. If you please that acutely. Because im broke. But you know you wont be gone for said. What the days you happened to lose are seeing a little bit but the bones arent part of it without you you know you could. Be noble a bunk one no were talking a little brown love you some moves i know this a little been built up putting us on loan. Back to being a beautician i want to do you view shit man lab. Because youre going to attack it agree to a 230. 00. 2 simple one. Oliver you sat. Down and your. Family if you look at it now as. Now we have the oracles blessing the broken agrees to contact them and to prepare a poisonous concoction and administer it to my son a childs life has now been sold for 40 us dont last 3 files im deeply shocked at this been for a while then does have become a necessity to a plot to madam i tell you. Of the cylinder deal with the broker and moving on to the neighboring province and meet with another. Willing to kill myself this time im dealing directly with the medicine man and from what i had more than read they dont know anyone in. The. Lab. But. I mean when or. How they go on. I want to. Know why the. M y m. O m. One of the. One of my weird about the end. I think that will hand it to you like a closing the door to run a being there do you have to hook up to him and then never did you see somebody yet i was letting. In well i dont want to. Depend on them and ive got baggage. As anyone with the just land lebanese are willing to apply. And id probably have a lot. Doing what i saw in the. Last. Year going to get out the month before. And then being that yeah i can get by when i said that. Want to take a look at what he called buzz on what i think company is on you to be to live in the house to be stranded in a computer is definitely. Back to. No you invited 2 groups of men to come to my rented property. And minister to my. Their medicine mans Group Shuttle for fares then in the morning they broke for the afternoon what they dont know is that look up Police Offices will be hidden away in one of the buildings watching on t. V. Monitors but 1st i need to prepare the house to receive the. Briggs the next morning the Police Arrive and back to save distance from the house. d officers will be monitoring every moment of the activities while 2 police in uniform will wait by the vehicle ready to take anyone arrested into class that. He is also now with us in men we believe our story we move over to the house in twos and threes to avoid arousing suspicion. Seem is now in one and. 6 Plainclothes Police officers and the baby is time to bring in and place it on a makeshift bed in the secrets camera room. Is now ready to take place at the last minute. 3 of he says the cup was asians while the officer and his 2 remaining colleagues sit in the money to move. From here you keep vigil and be ready to move in the moment the concoction man intends to kill. Suddenly we had the medicine man and his accomplice approach. Some men and his i promptly inside the house showed them their real child. Suddenly with them and cement leaning obama feet im never about he sifts they clearly have no qualms about killing him. And it gets worse wendy demand. Bringing him outside for them to inspect is sickening but i need them to believe i am ready to follow through if my plan is going to work out and the time that it. Tick tick tick. Tick tick tick. Tick. Days no way im leaving to feed there with them for a 2nd is them to get him to safety. I fuss him out through the window and into the secure arms of the weeds in police officer. There met some men build a fire and well some roots be dug up this morning to create a deadly brew. And. Im. Finally ready to admin is that a concoction. We make our way into the bedroom where de demand i handle but its out there is still dont know its a replica thank. You. To. You on the wrist young not to like to see anything unless you wish to see thats what i see you keep you down and begin you know you dance to no follow draw against. The person for the person to person. Is this also cut off yes start over it this is the prepared one and then this is where the prepared to put the baby. To deputy to people but even today even in handcuffs one of the men is still hanging on to a dummy as forensics offices begin to take samples of the materials used to make the concoction. Not but. It will have another week it will. Also and already one example into the business and the liquid there men have already prepared to admin is thats a cool thing. But why. Having that is sufficient evidence the police are now confident that the men both intended and not tempted to made that its out. If Police Vehicle is ready and waiting to take them into custody. I. Think the father. And the Police Station their men are brought in and told to give up all the opposition include india loads before being put into this else will. They. It will now wait here under lock and key on so accord decides the fate. Back at the house the night has fallen by the brook and his collaborate this the other group invited to visit coffee filter the police the said our evidence is sufficient to i raise them in a way as soon as hes taken into custody agrees to get as to the homes of his accomplices 1st is this who declared my fictitious child was evil. Then to prevent anyone from warning him to please keep we creep up on the house of the man who has been commissioned by the broker to prepare and administered a concoction. Of all the service so i tell you that your time is clear men folkways in india this life is also discovered and they can ask everything. As they are loaded into the police were going in taking to the cells the industry see where very different expressions of the 1st. Illusion relate the only now understand that take in a childs life the 2nd in that. Spirits child from 2813 a moving and powerful film and to day says on this story were joined now by invested journalist and us is also is not to show his identity great to have you in the studio with us. First of all explain to viewers who may not of course it from the film why youve got the Face Covering while i have always been in this traditional mask in my career and that so ensure security and thats to help so people dont see that phase that does that feel how dangerous is your work. I guess this is not to point to me but most african jan. Theres food to investigations have series of. Dangerous point and i asked so its you just have to be you have to think that how do i survive through then a story and i have come out with beat that i where im sure my adequately some in nigeria and this in malawi have addressed house of protecting themselves what sort of harassment have you faced when you were doing your work generally you would have before would definitely want to point guns at you some would try to kidnap you and weve had most of these happen and i mean get in threats of that is its normal there are legal suits all those and theres no synonymous to me alone but most of my colleagues on the continent suffer that you know muncher is to name and shame and jail. Over the naming and shaming but why do you feel its so important to take it to that level where you want to see the people that youre reporting on pay for us to face justice theres nothing more frustrating than doing a story on someone and walking on the same street on that with that person if thats even more dangerous and that can easily and the life of any journalist saw the days when we sit down and then say we have this problem we dont do story for people to read and smile in the bedrooms we do stories that have impacts on society for me that a good story is that story that named shame and guilt and the bad guy i mind can be unconventional i testify in the court of law to make sure that the bad guys are put behind bass and that has helped so many people have gone to jail as a result of my work and im proud of it if we look at the film that weve just seen spirit child i mean its a heart breaking investigation and what happened to those concoction men did they go to jail yes they started the leader process but do you realize that there were 2 or so. By the time the process could finish some of them just couldnt even make it to dallas only they had some sympathy but the key if in that happened in that story is that it told the community that whoever you are when you attempt to do some of these things you are going behind bass for the fest and those witch doctors where arrested and they were put before courts that sent a strong signal to all witch doctors to be careful that when you are dealing with the life of a child is a completely different math and that we can sit down for this children to be killed in their we be have been killed the former u. S. President barack obama he recognized you as a courageous journalist who risked his life to tell the truth and thats quite an extraordinary recognition to have do you think that you walk is having lost seeing positive impacts on gonna look africa as a ted world country we not have problems we have with judiciary we know the problems we have adopted these force before my thing that i am controversial but i am saying that on labor day you can the u. S. Wage analysts called the west story and the security agencies and judicial systems are stronger and could take up such issues in africa we dont have that we have institutions that lack basic amenities so i see no reason why a reporter from in a part of african continent would take one stick to the security jay says how full the minutes you are wasting people die thats the difference between stories that happen in the west and stories that happen in africa and author a very good speech about the very brave what that you were doing thanks for joining us here on rewind thank you and that is it for this weeks rewind if you want to catch any of the other films in the series youll find them on the rewind page on the out of their website but for now until next time good bye. I know theres a fairly chatty picture across the southeast of australia still want to get ready just affecting coastal areas as a new system on its way towards new zealand when we get there but this is what i mean about these type disguising we could just see want to shout along the coast a dry day generally into New South Wales on thursday but the shadows they are back in the 4 col slightly again as we head through into friday working their way out from sydney towards brisbane and slightly feel a bit cooler in sydney with a high of just 19 degrees friday is the day we could see some more rain showers pushing across into the north on and off new zealand and its going to stay settle across the far west of australia as we go through the next few days in fact friday some rather heavy rain back in for casa perth with a high of 20 but by then we should have seen the end of that rain which is affecting areas around broome and to the north of the southern coastal china is i can see more showers and thunderstorms on thursday feeling pretty humid as well 31 in hong kong rain across much of taiwan heavy at times and then really across much the Korean Peninsula on tools japan its mostly fine and dry just one or 2 scattered showers but really by friday thats when we have this next system developing through Central China it will work its way east with the day and this will bring with it some very heavy amounts of rain and there is a chance of some localized flooding. But. When you see big groups of people walking through europe there are only individuals with children that you have to fear all of them and to treat them with something that you respect. In the case to have or associated to it during the incident. Has the potential to be biased in a number of different ways there are too many opportunities for the computer to get wrong. Is wrong to be saying that your son this is not his road to. Doesnt it say you kill becoming a suspect before the actual crime and then depth examination into preventative policing precrime on al jazeera. Aljazeera. Hello im Barbara Sarah this is the aljazeera news hour live from london thanks for joining us coming up in the next 60 minutes. As 360. 00 people arrested in the latest protests in hong kong the u. S. Says the city is no longer autonomous from china and doesnt merit special economic treatment