Malawi Police arrest man for trying to strangle albino boy for his body party in Mulanje

Police in Malawi said Thursday they had arrested a man for trying to strangle to death a 16-year-old albino boy, with a rights group reporting six murders in the last three months.

Victims of a growing trade in albino body parts.
Victims of a growing trade in albino body parts.

The suspect had been on the run after he was caught trying to kill the 16-year-old at his home in February.

In the southern tea-growing district of Mulanje, police spokesman James Kadadzera said the man would soon appear in court on a charge of attempted murder.

As in other parts of Africa, albinos in Malawi are killed for their body parts, which are sold for witchcraft.

Six albinos have been killed in the impoverished southern African country since December, according to the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi.

Malawian albinos are “living in fear of being attacked or killed” because of the recent spate of murders, association director Boniface Massah said.

Belief in witchcraft runs deep in Malawi and albino body parts are often used in rituals. Even the bodies of dead albinos are sometimes exhumed and sold.

Earlier this week, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein denounced attacks against albinos as “stunningly vicious, with children in particular being targeted”.

Albinism is a hereditary genetic condition that causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes.

Countries in east and west Africa are worst affected, and Tanzania near Malawi has one of the highest attack rates.

In Tanzania, body parts sell for around $600 and an entire corpse fetches $75,000, according to the UN.

On Thursday, Tanzanian police said over 200 people have been arrested as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders.

Albinism in Tanzania affects one in 1,400 births, often as a result of inbreeding, experts say.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
17 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
EKaPol
EKaPol
9 years ago

This is so sad and bad. I wonder these magicians or witches or asing’anga how they keep on fooling people that someone can be rich through those means. Why are themselves not rich as it might be expected. Poor and so sad souls who have no other better place than in HELL. You never work, you dont have a farm to grow crops (or they have a farm but they are lazy-bones who think crops will fall from heaven onto their farms), they dont have a business or something that can generate enough money to be rich.. All they dream… Read more »

aurora
aurora
9 years ago

MXIIIIIIIIIIEE mgawadere ndiwe mbuli, instead of writing za nzeru like ur friends u busy pointing fingers to tribes..u are one of the pple thats bringing backwardness to our country,munthu osathandiza,full of judgemental thingies..
for you pple killling innocent souls,,oyenda ndilupanga,lupangalo ndilimene lizamuphe.
to the writer,y did you have to mention the figures, by doing that anthu opusawo have seen and calculated and willl continue to do kill.like mgawadere ndiwe ofoila.

bigman munthu waMulungu
bigman munthu waMulungu
9 years ago

evil doers, let them lot in jail. no bail

Wakuchindikika
Wakuchindikika
9 years ago

Alhomwe sadzatheka

Van Persey
Van Persey
9 years ago

The President should have found some time to speak on this issue rather than going out to paint some walls. And civil society don’t you think that this issue is worth taking to the streets? Surely as a nation we have not made enough voice on this barbaric act.

Concerned citizen
Concerned citizen
9 years ago

izi zikuchitika kumadera komwe kuli umbuli wambiri.monga thyolo mulanje mangochi.anthu ake amakana sukulu kooooopsa mapeto ake ndi izi kumangophana

Mong'onyolani
9 years ago

Anyone found Red-handed shud be Mob justiced

Gimbogo
Gimbogo
9 years ago

DPP WOYEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

mboniyabwalo
mboniyabwalo
9 years ago

Am sorry to say there must be a big fish behind all what is happening to the Albinos. Maulamuliro enawa are questionable. We had breast cutting saga between 1994 and 1999 then came Nachipanti terrorising the southern part of Malawi and now here we are , albinos being targeted. God have mercy .

Isaac chagwa mzuzu
Isaac chagwa mzuzu
9 years ago

This is among the isses calling us all Malawians to be united and catch these immoral people incase our albino brothers and sisters will keep on living in fear because of these human beasts.God help Malawi.

Read previous post:
Malawi Kwacha in further gains against US Dollar

Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) statistics show that Malawi Kwacha currency continues further gains against the dollar and other major...

Close