Case file · Witch trials
Killings of people with albinism in Tanzania
From around 2007, dozens of people with albinism in Tanzania, many of them children, were murdered or mutilated for body parts that some witch doctors claimed bring wealth and luck.
2008 CE · -2.52, 32.90 · status: official
The account
Most attacks happened in the Lake Victoria regions around Mwanza and Shinyanga, where fishermen and miners were among the buyers. The government banned witch doctors from practising in 2015, set up special courts and moved children to protected boarding schools. The UN appointed an independent expert on albinism in 2015.
The sceptical view
There is no magic in body parts; the trade is a criminal market built on belief, and its victims are its only proof.