A six-year-old boy with albinism in Tanzania had his hand severed with a machete by his own father in a brutal attack linked to ritualistic superstitions in the country.
The child, Baraka Cosmas Lusambo, was targeted by a 17-person gang led by his father and uncle, who broke into his home to carry out the assault. His lower leg was also wounded but ultimately saved by doctors. The attackers sold his severed hand on the open market for approximately $5,000, a large sum in Tanzania.
The attack reflects a wider pattern of violence against people with albinism (PWAs) in the region, driven by widespread superstitions. In some communities, body parts from albino individuals are falsely believed to bring good fortune. A report by the Daily Mail noted how albino bones are buried by miners in the hope of finding diamonds, hair is used in fishing nets, and genitals are marketed as cures for sexual potency. In past generations, newborn albino babies were often killed at birth, considered to be bad omens or curses.
Tanzania has the highest rate of albinism in the world, with roughly 1 in 1,400 people born with the condition.
Following Lusambo's assault in 2015, the Global Medical Relief Fund (GMRF), a nonprofit founded in 1997 by Staten Island resident Elissa Montani, stepped in to help. Montani coordinated with the organization Under the Same Sun, which advocates for people with albinism in Tanzania and provided shelter for Lusambo after the attack. The group also identified four additional children in similar circumstances.
Montani arranged for all five children to be brought to the United States, where they stayed at her charity's facility in Staten Island for five months, receiving prosthetic limbs and undergoing rehabilitation.
“They're not getting their arms back,” Montani explained, per the Daily Mail. “But they are getting something that is going to help them lead a productive life and be part of society and not be looked upon as a freak or that they are less than whole.”
Lusambo, who is now 16 years old, told the Daily Mail that he and his friends plan to return to Staten Island again in August.
