We are afraid when pregnant; if you give birth to twin they will be killed

Women of Tugbudu community in the Basa Komo in Kwali Area Council of Abuja-Nigeria capital city, who are of the Gbajingala clan, have said they get afraid when they are pregnant because if you give birth to twin they are collected from them and killed.

Some of the Women spoke to the MAWA Foundation team that visited the community to find out the truth about the killing of twin in the area, said it is unacceptable and an abomination to give birth to a twin, and for a woman to die within three months after she gives birth.

The community women told MAWA Foundation that any child born with any form of disability or grow upper teeth first is considered to come from an evil world and will be buried alive.

Some of the women, who did not want their names mentioned because the community leaders do not want the issue to be discussed, and are afraid of been punished, narrating the practice, explained that when a twin is born, they are given poison to kill them. Alternatively, they are forcefully taken away from their mother by masquerades and strangled.

After killing the twin, an altar would be erected in the house, a sacrifice to Tuwa, their deity, to ensure the twin does not return.

If in the parturition process, the woman dies, and the child survives, the child would not be allowed to live.  The new-born will be tied to the corpse of the deceased mother and buried with her.

However, if the nursing mother dies without weaning the infant, the baby will be killed; they believe the child is in possession of strange powers that are responsible for the death of the mother. Alternatively, the children will be dumped in the mother’s grave, whereas some are left to die of hunger.

Some of the women, who spoke to MAWA Foundation, proffering solution to ending the harmful practice of twin killing, pointed out that there must be intense advocacy and sensitization with women and traditional leaders leading the process to end the practice.

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