An albino toddler has been kidnapped in northern Tanzania, police
said, raising fears he may be killed and his body parts used for
witchcraft.
Unknown attackers broke into the
house and slashed the child's mother with machetes before snatching the
one-and-half-year-old boy in the northern Tanzanian district of Chato
late on Saturday.
"Two
bandits armed with machetes stormed into their kitchen, they hit his
mother with machetes and took away the baby," said regional police chief
Joseph Konyo.
The child's father, who was nearby during the attack, is being questioned, he said.
"We have asked the public for cooperation to arrest the suspects," said Konyo.
Albino
body parts are sought after in Tanzania for witchcraft. At least 74
albinos have been murdered in the east African country since 2000,
according to the United Nations.
In August, a UN rights expert
blamed a rise in attacks against albinos on looming presidential
elections, due in October 2015, leading political campaigners to turn to
influential sorcerers for help.
Albino body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000, according to the UN.
Albinism
is a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of
pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. It affects one Tanzanian in
1,400, often as a result of inbreeding, experts say. In the West, it
affects just one person in 20,000.
In
December, a four-year-old albino girl was kidnapped in northern
Tanzania. Multiple arrests were made but the child has not been found.
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