Tanzania Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

Albinos Reportedly Killed For Body Parts

The Tanzania Albino Society reports that at least 35 albinos, mostly women and children, were killed in 2008. Kassim Kazungu, head of Burundi’s Albinos Association, and others have reported that three albino murders occurred in neighboring Burundi in 2008.

Officials say the assailants were killing at the behest of people in Tanzania. Nicodeme Gahimbare, a public prosecutor, said the government had arrested two suspects over the murders. "The two who were arrested confessed to the crime and said they got 1 million Burundian francs ($840) from a Tanzanian seeking albino body parts," Gahimbare is reported to have told Reuters. Police also arrested two elderly men. Gahimbare said they confessed to being in touch with a Tanzanian who had promised them three million francs for albino hair.

In January 2009, Criminals believed to be linked to witch doctors killed an 8-year-old albino boy in eastern Burundi and took two of his arms and a leg. Read the full article here.

Olalekan Ajia, a communication specialist for UNICEF in Burundi, has indicated that the Tanzanian Government is taking steps in response to the situation: "Now the Government of Tanzania quickly took action and made it a capital crime for anybody to kill albinos. And the witch doctors and so on moved on to Burundi, where there’s a lot of poverty, and got some people who are completely dislocated mentally and psychologically to begin to hunt for albinos... We are working with [the] Government to raise awareness around the country to explode the myth that using body parts or blood can make anybody rich.”

The Canada-based NGO Under the Same Sun reports that "Albinism is a rare genetic condition occurring in both genders regardless of ethnicity. In North America and Europe it is estimated that 1 in 20,000 people have some form of albinism. In Tanzania however, it is 5 times as common with 1 in 4,000 people being affected."

Under the Same Sun condemns "the horror of a rapidly growing industry in the sale of albino body parts. This unimaginable evil is driven by the belief (in some areas of the country) that the body parts of people with albinism possess magical powers capable of bringing riches if used in potions produced by local witchdoctors. During the last year, official reports indicate that 43 people with albinism have been brutally murdered and their body parts hacked off and sold to witchdoctors. However, leaders in the albinism community believe the number of deaths to be between 60 and 70. Reports also indicate that albino body parts are being exported outside of Tanzania. In one instance, a Tanzanian trader was caught traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the head of an albino baby in his possession. He told police that a businessman there was going to pay him for the head by its weight." 

See also, "Bid to Stop the Killing of Albinos."

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