The Harm

Search for “witch” at All Africa.com

Witch Hunts in Java Called a Cover for Murders
Suspected witch killed by kin in Gujarat village
Witch killings in India

In the modern world you’d think that the idea of a witch would be relegated to fiction but its not. Even in the modern would people are killed for being a “witch”.
In some places in Africa where there are beliefs in witchcraft, it is believed that witches are not responsible for being a witch, they are possessed by evil spirits and those spirits must be exorcised but they then banished from the villages even though the “evil spirit” has been “exorcised” and it wasn’t there fault.
The parts of the world where these atrocity’s happen are parts where belief in magic, spirits, demons and spells still exists. These are the basis for the belief in witchcraft. If you believe in magic, you believe that people can use magic to harm others, if you believe in spirits and demons you believe that people can use them to harm others and that is essentially what witchcraft is.