Government engages extra gear on albino attacks
By Macdonald Thom:
Homeland Security Minister, Nicholas Dausi, has called for collaboration in the fight against attacks on people with albinism.
At a press conference in Lilongwe, Dausi also outlined strategies the government has put in place to ensure safety and security of people with albinism.
“The government will do whatever it takes to protect them [people with albinism] but the best security are people ourselves. We must coordinate, cooperate. We must have zeal to give information to the police and any security agents so that whoever is behaving in a suspicious way or is conniving, conspiring plotting and planning to kill maim or abduct a person with albinism has to be brought before a court of law or arrested by the police,” Dausi said.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Henry Mussa and Inspector General of the Malawi Police Service Rodney Jose attended the conference.
Mussa said implementation of the National Action Plan on Persons with Albinism, which was launched last year, requires everyone’s support.
Jose said the police are vigilant in the fight against the attackers.
“We have increased the presence of our officers in all areas that are populated by our brothers and sisters with albinism. We have also engaged ourselves in sensitisation campaigns for people within the areas. We realise this has something to do with people’s beliefs, where people are made to believe that they can use body parts of our brothers and sisters with albinism to get themselves rich or [for] other purposes that I may not be aware of,” Jose said.
He also said the police have intensified investigations and the prosecution of the cases that have been reported,
Association of People with Albinism in Malawi President, Overstone Kondowe, has, meanwhile, faulted the government for paying lip service to people with albinism.
A vibrant writer who gives a great insight on hot topics and issues
