Malawi court bans traditional healers to avert albino killings

A Malawi court has banned all sorcerers and traditional healers from practicing after a series of killings of albinos due to suspected witchcraft.

The judgment also prohibited newspapers from publishing advertisements of traditional healers.

“All traditional healers, sorcerers, spells vendors, magicians and fortune tellers are banned from working in the country to eliminate the problems of attacks and murders of albinos,” the judgment was made on Wednesday by the Mzuzu High Court in northern Malawi.

The court ruled on the complaint of three unhappy customers, who reported the use of organs of albinos in the magic practices.

As mentioned in the judgement cited by AFP, one of the complainants said he believes that “the killing of albinos are sponsored by wizards who use the body parts as ingredients for concoctions supposed to bring money miraculously.”

In Malawi, the police has recorded 65 attacks, kidnappings or killings of albinos since late 2014. The United Nations raised an alarm in April to denounce the atrocities, saying that the 10,000 albinos in the country were in danger of being “extinct”.

Albinism is the absence of skin and hair pigment as a result of a genetic anomaly. People with albinism are victims of violence in several African countries, including Malawi, where there is the belief that their organs are powerful.