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Albino People Suffers Extreme Abduction In Malawi; Human Limbs Sold As Ingredient For Witchcraft Potions, Rituals

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Skin color has reached another glitch in the southern African nation of Malawi. Where albino people are being hunted and murdered for their limbs which are eventually sold as ingredient to witchcraft potion.

In February, Edna Cedrick's 9-year-old albino son was violently snatched from her arms by a mob of people. Her son is now dead due to the recent wave of abductions and killings. This inhuman movement targets the victims' body parts which are sold and used in potions made by witch doctors who claim to bring good luck and prosperity, Tech Times reported.

Cedrick shared with the Associated Press their tribulation last month while holding the murdered albino boy's surviving twin brother who happened to also be affected with albinism. During that unfateful night, the mob kicked their door, torn their mosquito net and snatched one of the twins while her husband was away. Recently, another fatal attack occurred involving a 38-year-old albino father Fletcher Masina, whose limbs were gone missing when his body was recovered.

Activists in Malawi have initiated demonstration to protest and call for firm penalties for the perpetrators. Malawi President Peter Mutharika dubbed the killings disgusting and formed a special committee to focus on the issue, Tech Times added.

This gruesome trade stems from the belief that albino people's bones have gold restrain. Also, sex with an albino person is falsely assumed to miraculously cure HIV.

Malawi authorities have recorded 18 albino murders and abduction of five others in the past 19 months. However, International Amnesty fears higher data due to undocumented cases in rural locations. Since November 2014, at least 69 crimes in total have been recorded. The killing surge is also thought to be caused by mass unemployment and drought, International Amnesty reported.

Violence against albinos could be prominent not just in Malawi but also Burundi and Tanzania, the United Nations warned last year.

Albinism is a congenital condition marked by lack of pigmentation in skin, eyes and hair which affects up to one out of 15,000 in sub-Saharan Africa, along with one out of 20,000 in Europe and North America.

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