Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Tanzanian Families Seek Safe Havens for Albinos

Dar es Salaam — Tanzanian parents with albino children are racing to find safe havens for their youngsters after the abduction and suspected murder of two children raised fears of more attacks on albinos ahead of elections later this year.
Two albino children have gone missing in the past two months despite a government ban on witch doctors, who are accused of encouraging attacks on albinos to get body parts from which they make charms and spells that they claim bring good luck and wealth.
Last week police found the body of one-year-old Yohana Bahati just days after an armed gang snatched him from his home in northwestern Tanzania's Geita region. His arms and legs had been severed.
He was the second albino child in two months to be abducted in the Lake zone of the east African nation where an estimated 75 albinos have been killed since 2000, according to U.N. figures. A four-year-old girl kidnapped in December is still missing.



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