Police rescue albino child from traffickers

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Police rescue albino child from traffickers

8:22 CAT | 16 Jan 2018

Jornal Txopela (File photo) / Miguel Caetano, told a Monday press conference in the provincial capital, Quelimane it has been six months since the last known attempt to kidnap an albino in Zambezia.

The Mozambican police announced on Monday that it has aborted an attempt to kidnap an 11 year old albino child, in the central province of Zambezia, near the border with Malawi.

The child had been targeted by a gang of five traffickers in human body parts. Albinos have been the victims of murder and mutilation, because of superstitious beliefs that their body parts are imbued with magical powers. The dismembered parts of albinos are used in grisly rituals that are supposed to bring wealth and power.

The police intervened to rescue the child – but not before the gang had shaved his head and cut off his ears.

“We are on the trail of the other members of this gang believed to be those who ordered this macabre crime”, the Zambezia provincial police spokesperson, Miguel Caetano, told a Monday press conference in the provincial capital, Quelimane. He said it has been six months since the last known attempt to kidnap an albino in Zambezia.

The belief in the magical power of albino body parts appears to have been imported into Mozambique from Tanzania where albinos have long lived in fear of human traffickers. Even dead albinos are not safe: the traffickers profane their graves, and steal the bones for use in black magic rituals.

Caetano also said that last week the police arrested a health worker in Derre district who was found to be in possession of military equipment, including nine bullets, three pairs of uniform, a beret, a belt and a water canteen.

Asked where the equipment had come from, he admitted to stealing it from the Military Training Centre at Munguine, in the southern district of Manhica, where he had done his military service. Caetano said the police have not yet discovered what the man intended to do with the stolen material.

Source: AIM