This is an update on the situation in Tanzania. Noel brought it to my attention. Thanks Noel! The article appeared in The Sun from the U.K.
Welcome to Albino Island
By DAVID LOWE
Published: 09 Dec 2008
WITH their milky white skin, wispy hair and haunting, pale eyes, they are called “the living ghosts” by locals.
And the vulnerable albinos of Tanzania in East Africa have more than insults to fear.
They are being hunted down and hacked to death to satisfy a growing demand for their body parts and blood to use in black magic.
It is the stuff of nightmares.
In the Mwanga district, near Mount Kilimanjaro, a baby girl was dressed in black by her mother and left alone in the family hut.
A group of men cut off the pale girl’s legs, slit her throat, poured the blood into a pot and drank it.
In another sickening case a man was caught trying to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo with an albino child’s HEAD in his luggage.
He said a businessman in the country had offered to pay generously for the trophy, depending on the weight of the head.
The stories go on. A 35-year-old fisherman at Lake Tanganyika allegedly attempted to sell his 24-year-old albino wife to two businessmen from Congo for around £2,000.
And just last week, in the province of Shinyanga, 13-year-old albino Elizabeth Hussein was tempted from her home after hearing that a film about Jesus was to be screened in the village.
On the way back she was hacked apart by a machete-armed mob. Her limbs were found at the home of a witch doctor — who fled cops following a tip-off.
Two days later 47-year-old Ezekiel John, 47, was shot and had his arms and legs severed near the city of Kigoma.
These latest killings bring the number of brutal deaths of albinos in Tanzania to 35 in just a year.
The minority community also suffers massive prejudice. Not only do they struggle to get jobs but the kids also need bodyguards to get to school safely.
To read the rest of the story, visit: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article2017493.ece
Welcome to Albino Island
By DAVID LOWE
Published: 09 Dec 2008
WITH their milky white skin, wispy hair and haunting, pale eyes, they are called “the living ghosts” by locals.
And the vulnerable albinos of Tanzania in East Africa have more than insults to fear.
They are being hunted down and hacked to death to satisfy a growing demand for their body parts and blood to use in black magic.
It is the stuff of nightmares.
In the Mwanga district, near Mount Kilimanjaro, a baby girl was dressed in black by her mother and left alone in the family hut.
A group of men cut off the pale girl’s legs, slit her throat, poured the blood into a pot and drank it.
In another sickening case a man was caught trying to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo with an albino child’s HEAD in his luggage.
He said a businessman in the country had offered to pay generously for the trophy, depending on the weight of the head.
The stories go on. A 35-year-old fisherman at Lake Tanganyika allegedly attempted to sell his 24-year-old albino wife to two businessmen from Congo for around £2,000.
And just last week, in the province of Shinyanga, 13-year-old albino Elizabeth Hussein was tempted from her home after hearing that a film about Jesus was to be screened in the village.
On the way back she was hacked apart by a machete-armed mob. Her limbs were found at the home of a witch doctor — who fled cops following a tip-off.
Two days later 47-year-old Ezekiel John, 47, was shot and had his arms and legs severed near the city of Kigoma.
These latest killings bring the number of brutal deaths of albinos in Tanzania to 35 in just a year.
The minority community also suffers massive prejudice. Not only do they struggle to get jobs but the kids also need bodyguards to get to school safely.
To read the rest of the story, visit: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article2017493.ece
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