Heartbreaking First Photoe of six-year-old Albino Boy Whose Hand Was Hacked Off to Make Magic Potion in Tanzania

 This is the first picture of a six-year-old boy whose hand was savagely hacked off by hired assassins who collect albino body parts for witchdoctors to turn into charms and potions for their rich clients.
Baraka Cosmas was attacked on Saturday evening by a group of men, who stormed into the home he shared with his parents in western Tanzania.

The young boy was held down while the gang chopped off his right hand, before beating him and his mother Prisca Shaaban so badly both have been hospitalised.

 Shockingly, Baraka was the third child to be attacked because of the colour of his skin in just over three months.

Eighteen-month-old Yohana Bahati was snatched from his home less than a month ago, while four-year-old Pendo Emmanuelle Nandi was taken at the end of December.

Yohana's mutilated body was found a few days later, while Pendo has never been seen again.
All three cases are linked to a trade in albino body parts, fuelled by the high prices they fetch and a belief in the 'magical' properties of the skin and limbs, said to bring wealth and luck.

The men who viciously attacked Baraka at the weekend are likely to have been little more than petty criminals at worst, carrying out the bidding of a witchdoctor.
The witchdoctor will have paid a significant amount for the limb - but who paid the witchdoctor is likely to remain unclear.

Jonathan Beale, managing director of Standing Voice, a charity working to protect Tanzania's albinos, says until these people are rooted out, government efforts to curb the attacks and killings are likely to have little impact.

'This most recent tragic attack serves to remind us that current responses from the government, police force and justice system are not sufficient and do not target the heart of this crisis,' he told MailOnline.

 Children are being snatched from their beds as gangs of men roam southern Malawi hunting as demand for albino body parts fuels a surge in attacks and murders leaving people in fear of their lives, the U.N. has said.

The country, which borders Tanzania in the west, has seen a horrific rise in the numbers attacked or killed since January.

Already, there have been six attacks in 2015 - compared to just four over the previous two years.
Victims have ranged from a year old, to 68, with children being snatched from their beds as they sleep.

And just as in Tanzania, it seems the high value of the limbs is driving the trade.
An uncle, among three men facing charges in Malawi for the kidnapping of an 11-year-old Malawian girl in January, revealed he had been offered $6,500 for her body.

It equates to 2,778,425 kwacha - a fortune in a country where the minimum wage is 551 a day.
The recent surge in attacks has pushed the U.N. to speak out on the issue.

Convictions: Four men were sentenced to death last week for their part in the murder of 22-year-old Zawadi Mangidu, which came as the Tanzanian government began a crackdown on the shocking trade

Culled from MailOnline