Media reports said the girl was shot and her head and limbs removed by attackers during the weekend in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi, near the border with Tanzania. The death was the latest in a series of killings of albinos in the region.
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Albinos have long suffered discrimination and marginalization across Africa's Great Lakes region. They are also increasingly being targeted for death because of rumors spread by witch doctors that their blood can be used to prospect for gold and their body parts can be used to promote fishing. Business Club 21information.com
UNICEF, which has strongly condemned the attacks, is working with the governors of some Burundian provinces to protect the albinos, provide them with non-food items and ensure the children can still go to school. Welcome 21information.com
Olalekan Ajia, a communication specialist for UNICEF in Burundi, said the UN is working with the local government in an effort to break the myth that using body parts or blood can make a person rich. Business Club 21information.com
The rumors, Ajia said, can be traced to Tanzania where the government made it a capital crime for anybody to kill albinos. Hesaid witch doctors there then moved to Burundi, and got some people who are dislocated mentally to hunt for the albinos.
Burundian authorities have responded swiftly to the recent wave of attacks, passing laws similar to those in Tanzania against such crimes and offering a safe house in at least one province for albino children, Ajia said. world trade center 21information
No one has been arrested in connection with the weekend attack, but two male suspects related to an earlier case have been captured and taken to court.
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