Malawi seeks stiffer penalties for albino attacks

Stronger laws are needed to protect albinos in Malawi from senseless attacks, civil rights campaigners stressed as several hundred people participated in a march to parliament in Lilongwe.

The United Nations (UN) warned last month that albinos in Malawi are at risk of “total extinction” amid a spike in killings and attacks for their body parts.

“The presentation of the petition to parliament marks our determination as citizens and civil society to call for immediate stop and end to the killings of people with albinism,” said Edward Chileka Banda, who helped organise the march.

The petition calls for life imprisonment for people who attack albinos.

Parliament member, Ester Jailosi Jolobala, received the petition on behalf of the speaker of parliament. She said lawmakers would take swift action.

“You know it is disturbing … when you see perpetrators (released) either due to bail, or maybe lenient judicial sentences,” Jolobala said.
“This increases fear in people with albinism here in Malawi.”