The African obsession with albinos continues its sickening pace (see my previous posts here and here).In a new case, a six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine. Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions.
The girl was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September. There have also been a number of attacks in neighboring Tanzania. The latest attack took place in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi.
According to the BBC report, the child and her family had only just returned to their family home, believing it was safe. Armed attackers broke into the family home and tied up the girl's parents before shooting her in the head, local officials say. They had been among a group of about 50 people with albinism to have fled to a provincial center because they feared for her safety.
The head of the Burundi Albinos' Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians heard about the lucrative trade in albino body parts in neighboring Tanzania.
Last week, police in south-western Tanzania arrested a man who was attempting to sell his albino wife to Congolese traders. Two mothers in western Tanzania were also attacked with machetes after gangs failed to find their albino children.
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