Albino

[amir]

A missionary was ministering to an African clan when one of the women gave birth to an albino. The white missionary was immediately a suspect and he tried to explain albanism to the headman.

He said look over there at that those goats and sheep they are all white but there is one black lamb. The headman nodded wisely and said You no tell on me I no tell on you.

 

[waltky]

Albinos at risk in Malawi...

Malawi failing to protect Albino community: Amnesty
Rights body raises alarm over attacks against people with albinism, but government dubs Amnesty report as "unfair".

The Malawian government has failed to protect people with albinism, leaving this group to the mercy of criminal gangs who hunt for their body parts, Amnesty International has said. In a new report released on Tuesday, the rights body said the attacks on people with albinism over the past two years were "unprecedented" and that a lack of action on part of authorities has created a "climate of terror" for those living with the condition. According to the Malawi Police Services, at least 69 people with albinism have been attacked in Malawi since 2014. Amnesty said that at least 18 people have been killed, five others abducted since November 2014. At least four were killed in April 2016 alone.

Body parts belonging to people with albinism have become sought after in parts of southern aand eastern Africa​

Body parts belonging to people with albinism have become sought after in parts of southern and eastern Africa. Some believe they contain magical powers, leading to them reportedly being sold on the black market. While attacks have routinely taken place in Tanzania and Kenya and Burundi, "Albino hunters" appeared to have moved on Malawi over the past 18 months in particular. The report released by Amnesty, titled "We are not animals to be hunted or sold" described the severity of the attacks, including mutilation and dismembering, of members of the community.

The report alleges that police lacked the adequate training and skills needed to investigate such crimes. It further raised concerns over the police officers' ability to take human rights abuses endured by people with albinism seriously. "Some police officers carry the same prejudices against people with albinism that exists within the wider Malawian society," the report said. It's a claim Patricia Kaliati, Malawi's minister of information, vehemently denies. Kaliati said that her government was "doing everything possible to protect this community". "For Amnesty to suggest we are doing nothing is not helpful and not fair," she told Al Jazeera.

Head of the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (APAM), Bonface Massah, welcomed the report, calling it "a very positive development" for those with albinism. "It has highlighted the attacks and also has shed light on the deep-rooted social issues facing those with albinism in the country and gives us an opportunity to address it. Living conditions have become so difficult for those with albinism in Malawi, that in April, UN expert Ikponwosa Ero, said if nothing was done, they risked "systematic extinction". There are an estimated 7,000-10,000 people living with albinism in Malawi out of a population of 16.5 million.

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Albino people are being hunted for their body parts
June 7, 2016 -- She is haunted daily by the image of the decapitated head of her 9-year-old son. Police asked Edna Cedrick to identify it after the boy, who had albinism, was snatched from her arms in a violent struggle.

The death in February was one in a recent surge in killings and abductions of people with albinism in this southern African country. They are targeted for their body parts, which are sold to be used in potions made by witch doctors who claim they bring wealth and good luck. At least 18 albino people have been killed in Malawi in a "steep upsurge in killings" since November 2014, and five others have been abducted and remain missing, according to a new Amnesty International report released Tuesday. The toll is likely much higher because many killings in rural areas are never reported, according to the report. Malawi police also have recorded cases where the bodies of people with albinism have been illegally exhumed. Malawian police say the growing violence comes after neighboring Tanzania imposed tough measures against such trade in January 2015.

Cedrick, the mother of the murdered boy, recounted his abduction to The Associated Press last month while holding the murdered boy's surviving twin brother, who also has albinism. In the middle of the night, she said, she woke to the sound of people kicking down the door of the house. Her husband was away. "Before I could understand what was happening, they sliced the mosquito net and grabbed one of the twins," the 26-year-old said, tears in her eyes. "I held on to him by holding his waist, at the same time shielding the other with my back." When they could not overpower her, one assailant hacked her in the forehead with a machete, she said. "This dazed me, and I lost hold of my son and he was gone. I shouted for help, but when my relatives rushed to our house, they were gone."

The boy's twin keeps asking where his brother is, she said. She lies, saying he will return. On the same day of the interview, a deadly attack was carried out in another part of Malawi on 38 year-old Fletcher Masina, an albino father of four. When his body was found, the limbs were missing. "The macabre trade is also fueled by a belief that bones of people with albinism contain gold," the rights group says, noting another mistaken belief is that sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV. The report also points out widespread discrimination against people with albinism, including by family members.

Activists in Malawi recently took to the streets to protest, marching to parliament to present a petition calling for strict penalties for people who attack or kill people with albinism. President Peter Mutharika has since established a committee to look into the issue, which he called disgusting. "That anybody could think that you can be rich by using bones or something like that because some witch doctors have said so. ... That's stupidity," he told a political rally on June 1. Police concede that a lack of security has caused persons with albinism, and their parents, to live in fear of attack. "In rural areas where these attacks are rampant, we do not have enough police officers," the officer in charge in Machinga district, Isaac Maluwa, said.

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