1-year-old Albino Found Dead, Missing Arms and Legs in Tanzania

The body of an abducted albino toddler was found severely mutilated in Tanzania.

Vice News reports that the victim's family reported him missing over the Valentine's Day weekend and the body was discovered Feb. 17. The one-year-old's legs and arms had been chopped off.

The victim was named Yohana Bahati, and it seems as though he was a carefully chosen target. The boy was taken from his mother by an armed gang that demanded his mother turn him over to them. When she tried to fight them, they cut her with a machete. He was found just miles from his home.

In some superstitious parts of Africa, it is thought that albinos are magical and by consuming human albino meat, a person can also become charmed. This belief has made albino bodies extremely valuable, with a complete set of albino body parts fetching approximately $75,000 at market, according to Vice. Since 2000, nearly 75 albinos have been killed in Tanzania alone.

The black market value of albino body parts is so high that parents with albino children will sometimes even sell their own flesh and blood, knowing fully what will come after their children are taken from them.

The suspects in the case have not been arrested, because the family who fell victim to the attack lives in an environmental protection zone. This means there is little development and security presence. The dense forest and lack of security personnel in the region made it easy for the kidnappers to escape.

Yohana was one of three albino children in the Bahati household. The fact that albinos are so regularly targeted, and the attackers in this case were not apprehended, means that it is quite possible that the Bahatis may experience this heartbreak yet again.