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New home established for albinos living in Tanzania's refugee camp

Xinhua, July 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

A camp hosting Burundian refugees in western Tanzania has established a special home for people with albinism in an effort to protect them from attackers, an official said Monday.

The move came at the time when reports show that more than 70 people with albinism in the East African nation have suffered violent deaths at the hands of witch doctors and others seeking good luck charms.

Peter Buluku, head of Nduta refugee camp in Kibondo District disclosed this when commenting on the status of Burundian refugees at the camp.

Tanzania is currently hosting over 110,000 Burundians within two camps, Nyarugusu and Nduta.

"We took that decision after realizing that people with albinism are under threat, taking into account that there is an increasing wave of attacks on them in Tanzania," the official said, adding that recently there has been an increasing number of crimes in the area.

"We've seen increasing number of rape cases, theft, and some people have been trying to abduct people with albinism, these incidents made us come up with that alternative," the official said.

The new initiative according to Buluku, was spearheaded by non-governmental organizations offering different services at the refugee camp.

The new residential house for people with albinism has been built very close to the camp's police station.

The Nduta Refugee camp was established in 1998 and was closed in 2009, but reopened in 2015, when Burundi plunged into turmoil.

Since last year, the camp has a total of 55,320 Burundian refugees.

Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe, Tanzania's Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs said about 30 people have been sentenced to death for involving in the albino killings in the country.

He said there are many cases of people suspected to have been involved in albino killings in Tanzania.

"We're determined to end these killings which have shown a bad image of Tanzania to the international community," Mwakyembe said.

Since 2009, 155 cases of violation of albino rights have been reported to Tanzanian authorities, according to a recent study released by Under the Same Sun (UTSS), a Canadian-based NGO combats discrimination against people with albinism.

Tanzania is reported to have approximately 30,000 people with albinism, making it one of the countries hosting the largest number of such populations. Endit