Police in Tanzania have arrested the father of a four-year-old albino girl who is feared to have been abducted and murdered so her body parts can be sold to make witch doctors’ potions. Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi was snatched from her home in the Mwanza region in the north of the country on Saturday by attackers armed with machetes.
The body parts of albino people are said to fetch up to £50,000 in parts of deeply superstitious Tanzania where they are used to make potions and sold as lucky charms.At least 74 albinos have been murdered in the east African country since 2000, according to United Nations experts.
Regional police chief Valentino Mlowola told state television: ‘We have arrested four people, including the girl’s father. In August a UN rights expert warned that attacks against albinos were on the rise because Tanzania’s October 2015 presidential election was on the horizon, encouraging political campaigners to turn to influential sorcerers for support.