At least 75 kids and adults with albinism have been 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed in Tanzania since 2000 and more than 62 have escaped with severe injuries following the witch doctors’ attacks

It was from neighbours that Scola Joseph first heard of two strange men in the village asking after her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren. She knew immediately the moment she dreaded had come.

Packing small bags for Elijah, 3, and Christine, 5, she led them away from their home and towards the nearest town, to a government camp where hundreds others like them were living under protection. It was the only way to keep them alive.

Buhangija is one of nine such centres in Tanzania. This is where the country’s endangered class of albino 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren are moved in an attempt to keep them safe from witch doctors, who claim their body parts, ground up and put in charms, can bring wealth and fortune.

Separated from their families and forced to largely stay indoors because of the effects on their skin of the east African sun, they sleep three or four to a bed. They survive on basic food rationed by their head teacher because of erratic government funding.

“These 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren are living like refugees and it’s shameful,” said Peter Ajali, the headteacher. “I try to take the part of the parents and love them and keep them safe but it’s not humanitarian for them to live like this.”

Albinism, caused by a lack of pigmentation in their skin, hair and eyes, affects about one in 20,000 people worldwide, but is for unknown reasons more common in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania particularly, where it claims one in 1,400.

At least 75 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren and adults with albinism have been 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed here since 2000 and more than 62 others have escaped with severe injuries following the witch-doctors’ attacks.

With witch-doctors paying as much as $75,000 for a full set of body parts, which they bury or grind up to keep in charms, some of those implicated in the 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ings are members of the victims’ own families. The UN warned recently of a marked increase in attacks on albinos, which it said were at greater risk with the approach of national and local elections in October. The fear is unscrupulous politicians will turn to the traditions of the witch-doctors, known as mganga, and their ambitious promises.

The government has arrested 200 witch-doctors and this month a home affairs minister told MPs that murdering albinos would never win them their seats. Orders have gone out to the provinces to safeguard people with albinism in their communities. With scant resources, their answer has been to herd them into camps.

At Buhangija in the northern town of Shinyanga, the numbers of albino 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren arriving at what was originally a primary school for 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren with special needs has risen from 170 last year to 295 at present. Many more are expected in the coming months.

They join 64 deaf pupils already at the cash-strapped centre, and a further 40 who are blind.

Buhangija was built with boarding space for 40 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren. Its headteacher has been forced to turn the library, outhouses and a half-built classroom into more dormitories. Inside, metal bunks stacked three-high are topped with foam mattresses and tatty sheets, and 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren sleep three or four to a bed.

Aged as young as two and as old as 25, they spend their time outside classes playing football with rolled plastic bags and sitting talking on the dusty ground. Visitors are quickly encircled and clutched at by the little hands of those eager for a moment of the affection they are now forced to go without.

In March, a woman trying to shield her one and three-year-old 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren suffered machete injuries inflicted by five men. The 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 boy’s limbless torso was found days later in a nearby forest. His father was arrested.

The potential value of Buhangija’s 295 occupants means armed police join private security guards from dusk until dawn. Unable to leave the dusty compound, Mary concentrates on reading and dreams of becoming a doctor. “I hope I can go home one day,” she said.

Among the centre’s supporters is Under The Same Sun, a charity set up by a Canadian man with albinism. Martin Haule, a trained accountant and teacher who heads its educational projects, said: “Even people who have albinism do not understand that it’s just about the skin. They too believe they are somehow not fully human.”

January Makamba, a candidate vying to take over from President Jakaya Kikwete, said a better solution had to be found for people with albinism to live safely in Tanzania.

“It’s an embarrassment to this country that we have to keep them in camps like this,” he said. “It’s true some of those who procure body parts operate at the highest levels of society. These are deep-seated beliefs and we must confront them as a nation.”