Truemors
The incidence of albinism - lack of pigmentation in skin, eyes and hair - is quite high amongst African populations compared to European ones. Because of their obvious high profile in their community, they attract a high level of unwelcome attention, and various superstitious beliefs have surrounded them in communities where a lack of education about what causes albinism, with so-call "voodoo cults" conferring supernatural interpretation on the phenomenon, is causing immmense suffering to those born with the affliction.
Albino men and women are being killed and mutilated in <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Tanzania after witch doctors claimed their skin and body parts were an aid to getting rich quick. Support groups claim up to 25 albinos have been murdered in the past six months in the African country where superstition and sorcery are prevalent in rural areas. Witch doctors in some areas have told Tanzanians seeking wealth and power that potions made from blood, hands, hair and legs will make them wealthy.
That has led to a series of horrific killings where victims are stripped of bodily parts to make the macabre mixtures.
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