Madagascar: kidnappings of albinos, especially children, increase
Children with albinism are at risk in many African countries.
TONY KARUMBA / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
This recent phenomenon - since August - is worsening in certain regions of the south of the Big Island.
On December 9, the gendarmerie found after several weeks of kidnapping a 13-year-old albino child alive but mutilated in the district of Betroka.
His eyes were gouged out.
Faced with this, the Malagasy Disability Network and a deputy from this part of the island are sounding the alarm.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Laetitia Bezain
“
Cases that should no longer be considered as miscellaneous facts.
"
This is the appeal launched by the president of the Malagasy Disability Network, Falihery Razafindrakoto. He notes a dozen albinos kidnapped over the past five months in different regions of southern Madagascar. “
There are children who can no longer go to school for fear of being kidnapped. Even at home, they are not alone as these are sometimes family members who kidnap
"
,
explains the president of this organization that campaigns for the rights of disabled people and for the recognition of difference and disability as an expression of human diversity.
A "
phenomenon especially linked to banditry and dahalo, zebu thieves
", which is rampant in this part of the island, according to the Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie, General Serge Gellé.
The beliefs of some dahalo lend the eyes of albinos the power to see in the night or to make them invulnerable to gunshot bullets.
They are used by their
mpimasy
, or "sorcerers", to make them charms.
"
It's an insane belief but it becomes a phenomenon, a psychosis ... and it comes in cash.
It is also a question of money,
”continues the Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie.
"Ordinary people have heard that there is money to be made"
“
There, people are poor and rumors are gaining ground.
There are ordinary people who have heard that there is money to be made with this and they do anything,
”says Nicolas Randrianasolo, the deputy for Betroka, where two albino children were killed in the month of 'August for their eyes.
“
In Amboasary [in the extreme south of Madagascar, editor's note], people abducted an eight-year-old albino child and they were arrested in Betroka.
They took it from village to village to try to sell it, but they were unsuccessful.
These kidnappings will worsen if measures are not taken immediately
, ”continues the deputy.
Recent phenomenon
The phenomenon is new, said the president of the Malagasy Disability Network: "
The first time I heard about cases of violence against albinos was in 2015. It was about a seminarian kidnapped in Tulear. . I knew it existed in Africa but in Madagascar, it was the first time I heard it. Last year and this year, these albino kidnappings have escalated.
"
Cases identified in five regions of southern Madagascar: Ihorombe, Androy, Anosy, Atsimo Andrefana and Menabe, says Falihery Razafindrakoto
.
A " very recent
" phenomenon
, also describes the Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie: "
It is something that we know in some African countries and it is happening here now.
In other parts of Madagascar, for example in the east, there are albinos but people don't care about that.
"
Raise awareness and involve local communities
The Malagasy Disability Network, just like the deputy for Betroka, is asking for the establishment of mass sensitization of communities to prevent kidnappings, murders and mutilations of albinos. "
We caught the people who kidnap children,
assures General Serge. Gellé
. These children were saved most of the time. In the southern part of Madagascar, the villages are very remote. We cannot put the police in every house, but our effort now is to identify families with albinism, sensitize people, and empower village chiefs and local authorities.
"
The president of the Malagasy Disability Network also calls on other organizations promoting human rights to "
take into account the case of children and adults with albinism because they are minority groups," who don't really have a spokesperson.
So it is as if the problem did not exist at the level of these organizations.
The problem remains invisible.
Even the way of treating it in the media is as a news item, one-off.
"
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