Tanzania’s albinos are being ‘hunted down like animals’ as greed for money and influence drives families to turn on their own loved ones in ...
Tanzania’s albinos are being ‘hunted down like animals’ as greed for money and influence drives families to turn on their own loved ones in a trade allegedly fuelled by some of the country’s most powerful people. Witch doctors claim albino body parts are capable of bringing riches, power and success, if used in potions, while a UN report report into the trade revealed miners used the bone as amulets, or would bury them where they are drilling for gold. Fishermen are said to weave the hair into their nets to help them catch more fish.
It is believed albino body parts will bring a person wealth, or luck – and for that, people are willing to pay as much as $3,000 or $4,000 for a limb, or as much as $75,000 – about £50,000 – for the ‘full set’, a whole body. People with albinism are regularly attacked by people who chop their limbs off – an act which either leaves them severely mutilated, or dead.
Albinism, a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural communities, experts say. In just one of numerous cases, a 38-year-old woman with albinism was attacked with machetes by her husband and four other men while she was sleeping in February 2013, according to a UN report. Her eight-year-old daughter watched her father leave the bedroom carrying her mother’s arm.
Those living with albinism in Tanzania fear the lure of making a couple of hundred dollars – three times the minimum wage earned in the country – is placing them in danger, even from their own families.
Source: Dailymail
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| Albinos harmed in Tanzania |
Albinism, a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural communities, experts say. In just one of numerous cases, a 38-year-old woman with albinism was attacked with machetes by her husband and four other men while she was sleeping in February 2013, according to a UN report. Her eight-year-old daughter watched her father leave the bedroom carrying her mother’s arm.
Those living with albinism in Tanzania fear the lure of making a couple of hundred dollars – three times the minimum wage earned in the country – is placing them in danger, even from their own families.
Source: Dailymail
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