People with albinism: Pillay urges more protection after barbaric killing in Tanzania

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called Thursday for increased protection for people with albinism, after the barbaric murder of a 40-year-old woman with albinism in north-western Tanzania on 12 May.
“This killing and the terrible circumstances surrounding it sadly demonstrate that the human rights situation of people with albinism in Tanzania and other countries, remains dire,” Pillay said.
According to police reports, Munghu Lugata was brutally murdered Monday night at her home in Mwachalala, a village in Simiyu region, north-western Tanzania. Her attackers chopped off her left leg above the knee, two of her fingers and the upper part of her left thumb, apparently while she was still alive.
These attacks, which are often motivated by the use of body parts for ritual purposes, have claimed the lives of at least 73 people with albinism in Tanzania since 2000. Ms Lugata’s murder is the first reported killing of someone with albinism in Tanzania in 2014.
Pillay welcomed the rapid response of the police, who arrested two local witchdoctors on 13 May.