Africa's Hunted Children

Albino children in Mozambique live in fear of kidnap and murder, because of a sickening underground trade in their body parts. Nils Adler meets the brave families fighting a daily battle to protect them

- Nils Adler

Moamina was only five when a woman approached her outside her family home in Lichinga, Mozambique. The stranger whispered to her as she stood idly on her porch and offered to buy her a can of soft drink, a luxury that her mother could rarely afford. It was only when Moamina took the stranger’s open hand in excitement and walked off towards the local shop that a neighbour raised the alarm and tipped off the police. Later that day, in a dramatic rescue effort, police tracked down the woman, attempting to smuggle a confused Moamina on to a crowded train at a local station in the darkness, while Adalia, her terrified mother, was at home wondering where she had gone.

Moamina’s attempted kidnapping is just one of thousands over the past five years, targeting little girls and boys who suffer from a genetic condition called oculocutaneous albinism, which results in almost no pigmentation of skin, hair and eyes. In 2015 alone, a staggering 114 people with albinism were recorded as missing in northern and central Mozambique. Following kidnap, victims are killed, dismembered and sold by witch doctors, who promote false superstitious beliefs in neighbouring countries, such as Malawi and Tanzania (where the practice is more prevalent) that their bones will bring good luck, wealth and happiness. A single albino bone can carry a value of £965, and a recent UN report into the disturbing underground trade claimed a ‘complete set’ can reach up to £58,500.