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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