Burundi albinos in fear of killers

On an inky night earlier this month, a gun-wielding gang burst into Generose Nizigiyimana's mud hut in Burundi and dragged her sleeping six-year old albino boy into the bushes.

The widow and her other dark-skinned children fled into the night and heard a gunshot a few moments later. They found the dismembered body of the little boy lying behind their home when they returned.

"After shooting him, they cut him into pieces and took his tongue, arms and legs," Nizigiyimana told Reuters Television. "They went away with the body parts."

Burundian officials say the young boy was the fourth albino murdered this year in the tiny east African country by criminals seeking body parts for witchcraft.

Albinos lack pigment in their eyes, skin or hair. Their killers believe their arms, legs, hair, skin and genitals can be used in rites to bring clients success in love, life and business, according to police and albino support groups.

Campaigners say about 30 albinos have been killed in neighbouring Tanzania in recent months.

Inside Burundi, near the border, 25 albinos have fled village homes to the small town of Ruyigi in fear for their lives. They are under police protection around the clock.

"We can't even go outside during the day because people could run after us and kill us," said Godefroid Hakizimana, a 26-year-old albino farmer.

"People say we have a good market, that they can make a lot of money with our body parts. Our lives are in danger, that is why we are not ready to go back to our villages."

He said Burundi's government had done little to protect people with his condition -- who already have a hard life living in region where there is plenty of sunshine. Albinos are more susceptible to skin cancer and sun burns.

Remy Nsengiyumva, a local administrator, said the security forces were doing all they could, but that it was clear why albinos in the area were being hunted.

"We have been told that there are people in Tanzania using albino body parts to improve their mining and fishing businesses," she said.

"I think the authorities in both our countries should sit down together and take joint measures to eradicate those killings."

Responding to the attacks in his country last month, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete denounced the superstition surrounding albinos as a "stupid belief".