BLANTYRE // A Malawi court has banned witch doctors from operating in the impoverished southern African country following a spate of albino killings linked to witchcraft, according to a court ruling.
Judge Dingiswayo Madise granted an order on Wednesday stopping “all traditional healers, witch doctors, charm producers, magic users and fortune tellers from operating in the country to eliminate issues of albino attacks and killings,” according to a judgment read out by a court official.
The official, who cannot be named because he does not have authority to speak to the media, said the court made the ruling after three residents sued two witch doctors.
Albinos, who have white skin and yellow hair as a result of a genetic disorder, are regularly murdered in several African countries for their body parts for use in witchcraft.
Malawian police have recorded at least 65 attacks, abductions and murders of albinos since the end of 2014.
Of the three victims who sued, one had been promised that a lover who had abandoned her would come back.
Another said she had been guaranteed by the witch doctor that a robber would return her stolen goods.
When they failed to get the anticipated results, she turned to the courts.
Oswald Phiri, one of the complainants who has an albino cousin, said in his affidavit that he “believes that all the killings [albino] are stemming from witch doctors” who use albino body parts in their prescribed concoctions.
“After the request of the three concerned Malawians to ban activities of witch doctors in order to eliminate issues of albino attacks and killings, this court grants the order,” ruled the judge in the northern city of Mzuzu.
The court also ordered newspapers to stop carrying witch doctors’ adverts.
The United Nations warned in April that the country’s estimated 10,000 albinos face “systematic extinction” if they continue to be murdered for their body parts for use in witchcraft.
* Agence France-Presse
