Raising a machete over the girl, an albino child, he cut off her legs to later drink blood from them and possibly consume them—a practice witchdoctors told him could heal his body and bring better fortune.
The girl, left to die, succumbed to her injuries not long after, GlobalPost reports.
The ritual murder of an albino child is a crime that has been committed at least 60 times over the past several years. Belief has grown in regions of Africa that consuming the body parts of an albino has a restorative effect.
In Nigeria, meanwhile, a 12-year-old boy accused of witchcraft in the death of his mother was locked in a room with her body as punishment, then burned and beaten when he refused to eat parts of the corpse in a ritual his accusers believed would purge him of a perceived demonic possession.
This scenario has grown more and more common as thousands of children suffer accusations of witchcraft in a disturbing trend that a new UNICEF report says is on the rise.
Children in Nigeria protest against witchcraft accusations in 2009. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
