Hunted down like animals and sold by their own families for £50,000 - Tanzania's albinos hacked apart by witchdoctors who believe their body parts 'bring luck' in sick trade 'fuelled by the country's elite'

Tanzania's albinos are being 'hunted down like animals' as greed for money and influence drives families to turn on their own loved ones in a trade allegedly fuelled by some of the country's most powerful people.

It is believed albino body parts will bring a person wealth, or luck - and for that, people are willing to pay as much as $3,000 or $4,000 for a limb, or as much as $75,000 - about £50,000 - for the 'full set', a whole body.

People with albinism are regularly attacked by people who chop their limbs off - an act which either leaves them severely mutilated, or dead.  

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Tanzania's albino population is being hunted down by people who want to turn their body parts into potions and charms

Albinism, a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural communities, experts say.

In the West, it affects just one person in 20,000.

Since people began collecting records of the attacks, there have been 74 killings and 59 survivors of attacks. Even the dead are not safe: 16 graves have been robbed.

And these are only the recorded cases. 

The most recent case saw four-year-old Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi abducted from her home in December.

Her father and uncle were both arrested in connection with her disappearance, but - despite rewards offered of £1,130 and promises of swift action from the police - she has not been found.

Charities working in the area do not hold out much hope she will be returned safely, but - listening to survivors' stories - it is likely her end is, or will be brutal.

Mwigulu Matonange was just 10 when he was attacked by two men as he walked home from school with a friend.

They chopped off his left arm, before disappearing back into the jungle with their 'prize'. 

'I was held down like a goat about to be slaughtered,' he told IPP Media after the February 2014 attack.

In Mwigulu's case, the two men were strangers: he had never seen them before.

But it is understood suspicion turned on Pendo's father after he took half-an-hour to report her abduction, despite there being neighbours who could have helped as soon as she was taken. 

The plight of Tanzania's albinos, whose limbs sell for $75,000

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Who is my enemy? Josephat Torner, a campaigner for albino rights who works with charity Standing Voice, says family members have been involved in planning attacks against people with albinism

It is not just parents. A 38-year-old woman with albinism was attacked with machetes by her husband and four other men while she was sleeping in February 2013, according to a UN report.

Her eight-year-old daughter watched her father leave the bedroom carrying her mother's arm.  

Those living with albinism in Tanzania fear the lure of making a couple of hundred dollars - three times the minimum wage earned in the country - is placing them in danger, even from their own families. 

'Now we can see the parents who are involved in planning the attacks. What kind of war are we fighting if parents and family do this? Who can we trust?' Josephat Torner, who campaigns for albino rights, asked. 

What kind of war are we fighting if parents and family do this? Who can we trust? You do not know who is your enemy 

Josephat Torner, albino campaigner

'You do not know who is your enemy.' 

Josephat, who himself is albino, added: 'People with the albinism are being hunted and killed for our body parts. It is because people want to become rich.

'We are still living in danger. It is because people, they have different ideas. Some people, they are thinking they should get our body parts and sell to different places.

'The question is, why? Why now? And who is behind the killings?'

Exactly who remains unknown.

But Josephat - who has received death threats for his work, and was attacked in 2012 - said: 'The big fishes are behind the issue. It has been really a big discussion. If I say big fish, or big people, it is those who have enough resources, enough money.

'People sell the body parts for high prices. So it is not really small fish behind it.

'It could be politicians. It could be those people.'

Many albinos survive the attacks, but are left without arms or legs, which can sell for as much as $4,000. Pictures from Universal Initiative Foundation

ALBINOS: THE GHOSTS WHO CAN BRING YOU WEALTH, POWER AND LUCK 

Albinos are seen as curses, or 'ghosts' who can be wiped off the face of the earth, in many part of Tanzania, and across Africa.

Albinism is a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, albinism affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural communities, experts say.

In the West, it affects just one person in 20,000. 

Families are often told to kill the children at birth. Yet, conversely, their body parts are highly prized.

But Josephat Torner sees the two as being intrinsically linked.

'The killings and attacks is the outcome of the stigma and discrimination. If you respect me, you won't think of me as a commodity,' he said. 

Witch doctors claim albino body parts are capable of bringing riches, power and success, if used in potions, while a UN report report into the trade revealed miners used the bone as amulets, or would bury them where they are drilling for gold.

Fishermen are said to weave the hair into their nets to help them catch more fish. 

Children are particularly vulnerable: their innocence is highly valued, and they are not as strong as the adults attacking them.

Most of the time, limbs are taken - but the report notes there have been cases where victims were beheaded, genitals, ears, and bits of skin were removed; tongues were cut out and the eyes and the heart gouged out.

Other types of attacks reported included rape for healing purposes.

Possibly most shockingly, some believe the louder the screams while the limb is removed, the more potent the charm. 

Josephat's theory is backed up by Peter Ash, a Canadian who set up the charity Under the Same Sun in 2009.

'In a country like Tanzania, which is the 25th poorest in the world, the only people with that kind of cash are politicians or wealthy businessman,' he said.

But whoever they are, those buying the witch doctors' wares are clearly powerful.

Only 10 people have ever been brought to trial for their part in albino attacks or murders - but not one of them was a 'buyer'.

'The only people who have been convicted are the witch doctors and the hired killers,' said Peter. 

'But they would never name the customer - even when the witch doctor is given the death sentence. Never has a customer been named.'