Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police in the northern city of Nampula have arrested three people on suspicion of murdering a 12 year old albino girl, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.
The murder took place in the Milhana administrative post, in the district of Mecuburi. The killers enticed the child with sweets so that she would follow them into the bush, where they drugged her, before killing her and cutting her into pieces.
The spokesperson for the Nampula Provincial Police Command, Zacarias Nacute, told reporters “at first we thought the girl had just gone missing, but unfortunately our investigations showed that she had been murdered. We worked on the case and we located the suspected murderers”.
One of those arrested has confessed, the paper said. He was promised eight million meticais (about 125,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates) for his part in the murder and mutilation.
“We were guided by a witch doctor, and we put traditional medicine in the child’s mouth”, he said. “She became unconscious, and then we cut up her body and put it in a sack”.
The police say the crime was ordered by a person who is still at large, whom they are hunting down.
The murder was presumably to obtain body parts for use in macabre rituals. A superstition in parts of northern Mozambique is that albino body parts have magical powers, and can be used to obtain wealth or power.
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