In a display of brutality and cannibalism at its worst, unknown people kidnapped on February 14 a one-year-old albino boy in Tanzania, chopped off his legs and arms and dumped the rest of his body.

Police found the corpse of the boy, Yohana Bahati, on February 17 at Biharamulo Forest Reserve, according to Vice News. He was kidnapped by an armed gang from his mother, Esther.

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The group initially asked Esther to turn over Yohana to them. but she refused and fought them. They slashed her with a machete and threw her body a few miles from the family home.

However, she survived the attack but is in a critical condition at a local hospital. Her two other children who are also albinos are now under police protection.

Bahati is just one of the growing number of albinos killed for their flesh. Since 2000, almost 75 of these white-skinned people have been murdered in Tanzania for their flesh which fetches US$75,000 in the black market.

In December, a four-year-old Albino girl from the Lake zone of Tanzania was also kidnapped and remains missing to this day, reports Reuters.

The abductions and gruesome killings are part of superstitious beliefs or black magic still prevailing in parts of Africa that albinos are magical. There are some who believe eating an albino person's flesh would make a person also charmed or obtain magical powers.

Some Tanzanian parents will even sell their own albino children even though they know what would happen after they do so.

What made it doubly difficult for the Bahati family is because their house is in an environmental protected area, there is not much development nor security in their area, making albino kids vulnerable to kidnapping activities. The thick forest foliage presents a very good cover for the abductors.

Alvaro Rodriquez, resident coordinator of the UN for Tanzania, while condemning the death of Bahati, warned that since 2015 is an election year for the country, albinos are in danger because some politicians may ask witch doctors to make albino human sacrifices for them to have better chances of winning the election.

Albinism is a congenital ailment, with about 20,000 people suffering from that condition across the globe, the bulk of whom are residing in sub-Saharan nations. One in every 1,400 Tanzanian is an albino. 

TagsTanzania, albino, black magic, cannibalism, Kidnapping, Yohana Bahati