Attacks on albinos for their body parts on rise in Malawi: Amnesty
Amnesty International has warned that the number of attacks on people with albinism has risen in Malawi, calling on authorities to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice.
“The unprecedented wave of brutal attacks against people with albinism has created a climate of terror for this vulnerable group and their families,” Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for southern Africa, said on Tuesday.
The body parts of albinos, who lack pigments in their skin, hair and eyes, are sold for witchcraft in North Africa. Their body parts are believed to bring wealth and good luck and are prized in witchcraft for use in charms and magical potions.
The report condemned the Malawian authorities for “leaving this population group at the mercy of criminal gangs who hunt them down for their body parts.”
Amnesty said campaigners, police authorities, families and community leaders have all said that the number of attacks have increased recently.
According to the report, April was the bloodiest month for such attacks in Malawi, with at least four people murdered, including a child aged under two. The parents of the child have been arrested as suspects.
Simeon Mawanza, the lead researcher of the Amnesty report, said children with albinism have been sold by their parents.
“The images that you see, where they hack off their hands, their feet, it’s so difficult to understand what goes on in such a mind to commit such a heinous crime against an innocent human being, merely because they look different,” Mawanza said.
Authorities in Malawi say the number of albinos murdered in the past 19 months have reached 18. They said five albinos have also been abducted.
Since November 2014, at least 69 crimes against albinos have been documented in the country, according to police reports.
Amnesty, however, says the number could be higher because many attacks occur in secretive rituals in rural areas and are never reported.
Crimes are also committed against people with the congenital disorder elsewhere in southern and eastern Africa, including in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Burundi.
The United Nations warned against the increase in such attacks in Tanzania, Malawi and Burundi last year.
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