{"id":2564,"date":"2018-12-05T15:14:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:14:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:14:59","slug":"albino-nine-year-old-decapitated-in-malawi-as-shoot-to-kill-policy-fails-to-prevent-ritual-killings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2018\/12\/05\/albino-nine-year-old-decapitated-in-malawi-as-shoot-to-kill-policy-fails-to-prevent-ritual-killings-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Albino nine-year-old ‘decapitated’ in Malawi as shoot-to-kill policy fails to prevent ritual killings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two albino people have been murdered in Malawi since the beginning of the year, while five more have been abducted.<\/p>\n

As the severed head of a nine-year-old victim was discovered 20km from his home,\u00a0Amnesty International called on the Malawian government to do more to protect\u00a0members of the vulnerable minority group.<\/p>\n

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Last year, Malawi’s Inspector General of police authorised\u00a0his officers to\u00a0shoot on sight<\/a>\u00a0in order to protect albino people, whose body parts are sought for use in magical rituals.<\/p>\n

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Speaking in April 2015, Lexen Kachama said:\u00a0\u201cShoot every criminal who is violent when caught red-handed abducting people with albinism.\u00a0We cannot just watch while our friends with albinism are being killed like animals every day.”<\/p>\n

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But despite this hardline stance, murders and kidnappings of people with albinism are on the rise in Malawi, as they are in Tanzania and other countries in\u00a0the\u00a0Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n