Tete Albinos Afraid to Visit Markets – Mozambique

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Tete Albinos Afraid to Visit Markets – Mozambique

4:53 CAT | 08 Feb 2016

In file Club of Mozambique.

Albino citizens in the western Mozambican province of Tete say they are afraid to visit markets, for fear that they might be kidnapped.

According to a spokesperson for Tete albinos, Cesaria Chazia, sometimes when albinos go shopping in local markets, they are the victims of jeering threats from bother vendors and clients.

She said that among the jeers were veiled threats such as “Look, my meal ticket is arriving” amd “Don’t you know you’re good business?” These are references to the sale of albino body parts for use in black magic rituals.

In December and January there were four cases confirmed by the police in which albino citizens were kidnapped. Most of the victims were children. Two cases occurred in Moatize district, one in Marara and one in Angonia.

Chazia says another child was kidnapped in Cahora Bassa district, and the mayor of the Angonia district capital, Ulongue, Armando Julio, puts the number of kidnappings in this district at two.

Last week the police arrested two women, suspected of involvement in one of the Moatize kidnappings. The victim was a 19 year old albino youth, and the women are the wife and sister of a man seen carrying the albino on the back of his motor-cycle. The owner of the motor-bike is wanted by the police and appears to have gone into hiding.

The wife was picked up because she had told friends that her husband returned home that day with his trousers covered in blood. When she asked where the blood came from, he told her it was the blood of a goat he had killed. The wife’s friends told this to the police, who decided to arrest her. It may be difficult to test the blood on the trousers, because the wife had them immediately washed.

The sister was also picked up, because the police found her packing a bag, and preparing to leave the house. The two women were soon released, since none of what they had allegedly said or done amounted to criminal activity.

Lurdes Ferreira, the press officer in the Tete Provincial Police Command, said the police are working in the markets to persuade vendors not to make threats against albinos “because we are all equal, and we call on the public to denounce those who make this kind of threat”.

Source: AIM