Another Tanzanian Albino medicine killing

The dismembered body of a young albino boy has been found in a river on the Burundi-Tanzania border, reports say.

The boy, aged nine, was taken from Makamba province in Burundi by a gang that crossed the border, the head of Burundi's albino association said.

Kassim Kazungu told AFP the remains had been recovered from the Malagarazi river and given a formal burial.

Albino body parts are prized in parts of Africa, with witch-doctors claiming they have special powers.

In Tanzania, the body parts of people living with albinism are used by witch-doctors for potions which they tell clients will help make them rich or healthy.

Dozens of albinos have been killed, and the killings have spread to neighbouring Burundi.

BBC Report

17 year old murder victim mutilated

Anika Smit

A father arrived home from work on Wednesday to discover the body of his teenage daughter, naked and with her hands hacked off.

That morning, Johan Smit had said goodbye to his only child, 17-year-old Anika, before he left their home in the north of Pretoria for work.

When he got home she was dead and had presumably been raped. Her hands were cut off between the elbow and wrist and were missing.

"When I saw the dining room chairs were overturned, I knew something was wrong," said Smith, 54, from Theresapark, as he fought back his tears.

"I called her, but she didn't answer."

Body in bedroom

Moments later, Smit discovered his daughter's body in her bedroom.

Nothing was stolen.

Police spokesperson William Mahlaole said a post-mortem will confirm the cause of Anika's death and whether she was raped or indecently assaulted.

Anika, who lives with her father, was alone at the home on Wednesday. She had stayed home from school due to an ear infection.

Smit arrived home after work at about 16:00 and saw the outside gate and security gate standing open with their locks missing. Anika's scooter stood at the front door.

When he went into the house, he saw the dining room table had been moved and the chairs were overturned. When he called his daughter and she didn't answer, he went to her room.

"She was lying on the ground, naked. Both her hands were gone, they'd been cut off. They must have taken them."


Full report here

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From Dina

NOTE: Typically the report does not say so, but the only reason I can think of for taking body parts from the victim, and that is for use in muti medicine.

muti harvesting increases

Nearly 1 000 families nationwide reported that the corpses of their dead relatives had been harvested for muti before burial last year.

The cases of missing body parts were reported to the Traditional Healers Organisation (THO), but there is no clear record as to whether police charged or arrested anyone.

"About 901 bodies had some parts missing, especially breasts and genitals," said national co-ordinator of the THO, Phephisile Maseko, on Monday. "The biggest question is, who are these people who purchase the parts? And, if we expose them, what systems are there to protect us?"

She expressed concern that in "most cases" police were involved in protecting those, often wealthy businessmen, who buy human body parts in the belief that it will boost their businesses.

Maseko said the elderly and children were particularly vulnerable to muti killings.

"People believe that if you use the genitals or hands of an old person or a child for muti, your business will make lots of money, but it's not true," she said.

She said traditional healers who used body parts to make muti were not true healers, but "heartless witches".

"How could a healer use body parts or remove somebody's body parts while the person is still alive? That means you are a witch, not a healer," she said.

Full report


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Hat Tip: Dina

Update - Kgomo murder: 'suspect was a sangoma'

Five suspects, including a 14-year-old boy,appeared in the Soshanguve Magistrate's Court near Pretoria (Gauteng province) on Tuesday in connection with the murder of 10-year-old Masego Kgomo. who's mutilated body was found hidden in a dense clump of bushes near her Soshanguve home on Friday night.

Pathologists on Monday conducted an autopsy on Masego to establish how and when she was killed. It is believed that tests were also conducted to determine whether she had been sexually assaulted and mutilated.

Reports said at least one of the five suspects was a sangoma, apparently involved in the use of body parts for muti.

News source

Muti Murder

A forensics team at the crime scene where Masego Kgomo's body was found.

The killers of 11-year-old Masego Kgomo, whose badly decomposed and apparently mutilated body was found hidden in a dense clump of bushes near her Soshanguve home, are believed to behind the murder of three other young Pretoria girls.

Masego's body, which was identified by her parents and grandfather, was discovered on Friday night after one of the suspects took police from a provincial task team, assigned to investigate the case, to where she had been dumped.

The body, which was covered in a thick grey blanket, was found with her legs spread open in the centre of the clump of bushes in a field near the Soshanguve train station and the Soshanguve Hotel.

According to sources, police are investigating whether the little girl, who disappeared from her home on New Year's Eve, was raped before her genitals were removed. Officers also want to determine at exactly which point she was killed.

While police are remaining tight-lipped and refusing to comment on any of the latest information, including whether more arrests had been made, sources say at least one of the suspects has told police about similar murders of three other girls in areas around Soshanguve last month.

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