Modern Day Witch Hunts

Bolos wrote a blog on the accusations of witchcraft that is currently occuring in more than one country in Africa. This is partially based off of the Bantu religion, and as an excuse to expel children from the family in order to not have to care for them anymore. "'The witches situation started when fathers became unable to care for the children,' said Ana Silva, who is in charge of child protection for the children’s institute. 'So they started seeking any justification to expel them from the family.'" But that made me wonder--is it only children who are being accused of witchcraft? The article claims it is the modern-day Crucible, but is it only children being convicted of witchcraft? Or are they just showing all of the cases of children to obtain the sympathy of the readers?
On the second page of the article, there are examples of how children have been treated and why they have been accused: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/world/africa/15witches.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2 At the bottom is a case where the boy's mother would not believe that he had only confessed to a witch only to save his life, which is in fact, like the Crucible almost exactly.