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Dar es Salaam – An albino toddler has been kidnapped in northern Tanzania, police said late on Monday, raising fears he may be killed and his body parts used for witchcraft.Unknown attackers broke into the house and slashed the child’s mother with machetes before snatching the one-and-half-year-old boy in the northern Tanzanian district of Chato late on Saturday.

“Two bandits armed with machetes stormed into their kitchen, they hit his mother with machetes and took away the baby,” said regional police chief Joseph Konyo.

The child’s father, who was nearby during the attack, is being questioned, he said. “We’ve asked the public for co-operation to arrest the suspects,” said Konyo.

Albino body parts are sought after in Tanzania for witchcraft. At least 74 albinos have been murdered in the east African country since 2000, according to the United Nations.

In August, a UN rights expert blamed a rise in attacks against albinos on looming presidential elections, due in October 2015, leading political campaigners to turn to influential sorcerers for help.

Albino body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000, according to the UN. – AFP