Police in Tanzania have arrested the father of a
four-year-old albino girl who is feared to have been abducted and murdered so
her body parts can be sold to make witch doctors' potions.
Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi was snatched from her home in the
Mwanza region in the north of the country on Saturday by attackers armed with
machetes.
Regional police chief Valentino Mlowola told state
television: 'We have arrested four people, including the girl's father.
'We are still in the process of interrogating them so we
can find out where the girl is -- if she is still alive,' the official said,
adding the attackers may have been tipped off by neighbours.
It was learnt that body parts of albino people are said
to fetch up to £50,000 in parts of deeply superstitious Tanzania where they are
used to make potions and sold as lucky charms.
A hereditary genetic condition which causes a total
absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, albinism affects one
Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural
communities, experts say. According to report, Islam and Christianity are the main religions in Tanzania a 2010 survey
found that 93 per cent of people still believe in witchcraft.
In May last year
two witch doctors were arrested after an albino woman was found hacked to death
with her fingers and one leg removed in the Simiyu province also in the
northern part of the country. And
in August three men armed with machetes hacked off the arm of a 15-year-old
albino girl in Tabora in the west of the country.
In August a UN rights expert warned that attacks against
albinos were on the rise because Tanzania's October 2015 presidential election
was on the horizon, encouraging political campaigners to turn to influential
sorcerers for support.
‘The Albino story
is just so touching and we should all work as one to protect these people.
Tanzania needs to put up a strict law when anyone practicing such stupid
witchcraft be put away for life.’ Watch video HERE.
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