Bujumbura: A twelve-year-old albino boy was killed late on Thursday by armed men in the central Burundi district of Kiganda in what authorities suspect could be linked to witchcraft.
Albino hunters kill their victims and use their blood and body parts for potions. Witchdoctors tell their clients that the body parts will bring them luck in love, life and business.
"The twelve-year-old albino was killed by four men with guns and knives. They cut off his left hand and fled away with it," Kiganda administrator Joseph Ntahuga, said yesterday.
Ntahuga, a government official in the district 80 kilometres from the capital Bujumbura, said the victim had two other albino siblings. The murder brings to 14 the number of albinos killed in the tiny central African country since 2008.
The coffee-producing nation of eight million people has around 500 albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair.
Body parts
Burundian authorities believe the killings are carried out local residents who work with witchdoctors in neighbouring Tanzania, where 53 albinos have been killed since 2007 for their body parts, which are sold for use in witchcraft. There are around 170,000 albinos living in Tanzania.
Kazungu Kassim, head of the national association of albinos, says albino killings continue in Burundi because severe punishment is not handed down to the perpetrators.
