Albinos being targeted in Tanzanian witchcraft killings

Albino men and women are being killed and mutilated in Tanzania after witch doctors claimed their skin and body parts were an aid to getting rich quick.

Support groups claim up to 25 albinos have been murdered in the past six months in the African country where superstition and sorcery are prevalent in rural areas.

Witch doctors in some areas have told Tanzanians seeking wealth and power that potions made from blood, hands, hair and legs will make them wealthy.

That has led to a series of horrific killings where victims are stripped of bodily parts to make the macabre mixtures.

Now after years of living in fear, albinos have appealed directly to the president Jakaya Kikwete to intervene and order local police to protect them.

Some officers have been accused of turning a blind eye in return for cash when attacks on albinos occur.

Alfred Kapole, chairman of the albinos association in the Mwanza Region, next to Lake Victoria, said he was disturbed by the lack of arrests.

“The government has been sacking its officials who fail to mobilize people to undertake development programmes, but has failed to reprimand officials who have failed to stop the killings.” he said.

After a visit to one area, a BBC team found the widow of one victim who had been murdered while eating food outside his house.

Susannah Rutahiro said four men burst in to their compound and threatened to arrest her albino husband Nyerere before hacking at his legs and arms with machetes. 

She told the investigating team that they shouted “we want your legs, we want your legs” before fleeing.

She said her husband, a father-of-two in his 50s, was an accepted member of the community and well liked.

However, he had to be buried in a concrete tomb to prevent grave robbers from plundering the remainder of his disfigured body.

Among the mourners at his funeral was his sister Winifrida who is also albino and worried about becoming a target herself.

She whispered to the reporting team: “Please, ask the government to take me away from here. I dare not come out of the house since my brother was killed.” 

Albinism is caused by the person’s body being unable to produce melanin, a colour pigment of the skin, hair and eyes.

Witch doctors have told Tanzanians that potions made from albino blood, hands, hair and legs will make them wealthy

The lack of melanin causes the skin to burn easily in the sun and therefore increases the odds of skin cancer, making the wearing of sunglasses, sun cream and hats vital in hot climates.

It affects one in 20,000 people worldwide but the incidents are greater in parts of Africa.

A recent report by the World Health Organisation gave prevalence rates of between 1 in 15,000 in Nigeria's East Central State to as many as 1 in 1,000 in the Tonga tribe of Zimbabwe. 

In South Africa’s around one in 3,900 among the black population, although there are no statistics for Tanzania which gained independence from Britain in 1961 and borders Kenya to the north and Mozambique to the south.

The Albino Association of Tanzania says 4,000 are officially registered in the country but it thinks the real figure could be as high 173,000. 

Tanzanian police say more than 170 people are in custody in relation to attacks on albinos but so far, no one has been prosecuted. 

In the latest assault, a seven-month-old albino baby was murdered and mutilated for body parts on the orders of a witch doctor.

Worryingly there have also been reports of albino killings in Kenyawhere a woman was hacked to death in May and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo where witch doctors have been seen selling albino skin.