Traditional Healing, Traditional Killing

Traditional healers in Tanzania are defying a government ban intended to stop the killings of people with albinism for ritual medicine.

It comes days after the latest murder of an albino man in Tanzania brought the national death toll to at least 40 since mid-2007. The killers reportedly sell albino body parts - including limbs, hair, skin and genitals - to witchdoctors. In November, a six-year-old Burundi girl was found dead, in connection with trafficking of body parts by traditional healers.

Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda announced the government was revoking the licenses of all traditional healers effective immediately. In the most recent case late last month, an albino man - named as Jonas Maduka - was killed in Sogoso village in the north-western Mwanza region.

He was reportedly eating dinner at home when some people called and asked for his help. When he went outside he was strangled, before his assailants chopped off his leg and made away with the limb.

The Tanzanian authorities have arrested more than 90 people in recent months - including four police officers - on suspicion of killing albinos or of trading in their body parts.