Last week, the BBC reported a story about a man who attempted to sell his albino wife in Tanzania. According to the article, albino body parts are sought after due to a belief their body parts can make magic potions more effective.
In neighboring Burundi, a 6-year-old albino girl was found dead today with several of her body parts removed – believed to be for the same ritual purposes.
The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September.
Armed attackers broke into the family home and tied up the girl’s parents before shooting her in the head, local officials say.
They had been among a group of about 50 people with albinism to have fled to a provincial centre because they feared for her safety.
The head of the Burundi Albinos’ Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians heard about the lucrative trade in albino body parts in neighbouring Tanzania.
Full story here.