Albino boy killed in Burundi, witchcraft suspected

A twelve-year old albino boy was killed late on Thursday by armed men in the central Burundi district of Kiganda in what authorities suspect could be linked to witchcraft.

Albino hunters kill their victims and use their blood and body parts for potions. Witchdoctors tell their clients that the body parts will bring them luck in love, life and business.

"The twelve-year-old albino was killed by four men with guns and knives. They cut off his left hand and fled away with it," Kiganda administrator Joseph Ntahuga, said on Friday.

Ntahuga, a government official in the district 80km from the capital Bujumbura, said the victim had two other albino siblings.

The murder brings to 14 the number of albinos killed in the tiny central African country since 2008.

The coffee producing nation of 8 million people has around 500 albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair.

Burundian authorities believe the killings are carried out local residents who work with witchdoctors in neighbouring Tanzania, where 53 albinos have been killed since 2007 for their body parts, which are sold for use in witchcraft. There are around 170,000 albinos living in Tanzania.

Kazungu Kassim, head of the national association of albinos, says albino killings continue in Burundi because severe punishment is not taken against the perpetrators.

"The solution is to sentence those responsible for albino killings to hang as it is done in Tanzania," he said.

A man has been sentenced death by hanging for killing a five-year-old albino girl in Tanzania by hacking off her legs with a machete and then drinking her blood.