Mozambique: Three albino children kidnapped in Tete since December

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Mozambique: Three albino children kidnapped in Tete since December

8:40 CAT | 13 Jan 2016

Folha de Maputo (File).

Three albino children have been kidnapped in the western Mozambican province of Tete since early December, according to the provincial command of the police.

At a press conference in Tete city on Monday, provincial police spokesperson Lurdes Ferreira said the latest abduction occurred on Sunday, when a five year old albino boy was seized in the Zobue region, in Moatize district, near the border with Malawi.

The earlier kidnappings took place on 3 December in Marara district, and on 4 January in Angonia district. Both these victims were young girls.

In the Angonia case, the kidnappers pretended that they were in the area to buy goats. The mother of the abducted child tried to save her daughter, but was seriously injured by the kidnappers.

Ferreira said the police are deeply concerned by these kidnappings, and asked for cooperation from the public in locating and detaining the kidnappers. The fear must be that the children may have been killed, and their body parts harvested for use in black magic rituals. The superstitious belief that albino body parts have magical powers seems to have spread from Tanzania into Mozambique.

“Although we have not yet arrested any of the kidnappers of these albino children, we are redoubling our operations”, said Ferreira. “Two months ago we detained two individuals who were in possession of the bones of a child, in Tsangano district. As a result of our investigations, we concluded that these were the bones of an albino. We are looking for the people who ordered these crimes”.

Ferreira added that, during the festive season, the police arrested eight people suspected of attempting to kidnap children in Changara district. These children were not albinos, and it is not clear what was the motive for the attempted kidnap.

“We arrested them thanks to a tip-off”, Ferreira said, “and we urge people to continue collaborating with the police, and denouncing criminals”.

There is now a clandestine trade in the sale of bones supposedly from albinos. In December the Tete police arrested nine people who were selling bones which they claimed came from albinos. The Tete attorney’s office is investigating this case, and is attempting to determine where th bones came from and whether, in life, they had really belonged to albinos.

Source: AIM