Tanzania’s albino population has in recent years lived in fear. They have been hunted by people who have bought into the claim by the country’s witch doctors that harvested albino body parts can bring people prosperity. Since March 20007, at least 19 Albinos have been hunted down. In one instance, a teacher in the northern part of the country killed his own albino child.
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These atrocities have finally been addressed by the country’s government. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kilwete has denounced these barbaric killings as “shameful to our society” and has condemned the witch doctors who have instigated such crimes.
Albinos – who number about 270,000 – suffer from a lack of pigmentation in the eyes, hair and skin, and have long been considered witches themselves by the country’s witch doctors. They are not the only ones being targeted. Bald people too have been hunted for their limbs, tongues and genitals.