Children go into hiding as albino killings cause fear and anxiety

• 7,000: Estimated albino population in Tanzania
• 1,000: Estimated albino population in Burundi
• 300: Albino children and teenagers who have gone into hiding in Tanzania and Burundi
• 44: Official albino death toll in Tanzania
• 12: Official albino death toll in eastern Burundi
• 2: Years since the albino killings began in Tanzania

The bizarre killings of albinos in Burundi and Tanzania has evoked deep fear and anxiety in the two countries, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says.

In a report, Through Albino Eyes, IFRC says nearly 300 children and teenagers have gone into hiding in schools for the disabled in Tanzania and in emergency shelters established by the police in Burundi, where they live under deplorable conditions. Parents who are forced to take care of them have been rendered jobless.

Thousands more in the countryside cannot trade, study or farm freely for fear of being hunted down by killers who harvest their blood and body parts such as hair, genitals and limbs for magic.

The official toll is 44 in Tanzania, mainly in the highly superstitious northwest region near Lake Victoria, and 12 in the eastern Burundi provinces of Cankuzo, Kirundo, Muyinga and Ruyigi near the Tanzania border.

IFRC secretary-general Bekele Geleta described albinism as one of the most unfortunate “vulnerabilities” that urgently needs to be tackled at the international level.

“Our national societies have responded well and will continue to assist in areas they can really add value — public-health education and raising awareness on anti-discrimination,” he said.

Salif Keita, a Malian albino singer and human rights activist, said: “Even before the killings began two years ago, the albino community in tropical Africa suffered an array of afflictions that made physical survival a desperate struggle.”

He singled out the high incidence of fatal skin cancer due to the acute sensitivity of albinos to sunlight.

The Tanzania Red Cross Society is planning health education and vocational teaching to improve albinos’ chances of finding indoor employment, says IFRC.

Crisis fourfold

Peter Mlebusi, the TRCS deputy secretary-general, said the crisis is fourfold: ill health; stigma; insecurity; and delays in legal redress.

The Burundi Red Cross was “committed to working with authorities to end the killings and secure a life of dignity” for albinos, said its secretary-general, Anselme Katyunguruza.