Hunted down like animals and sold by their own families for £50,000: Tanzania's albinos hacked apart by witchdoctors who believe their body parts 'bring luck' in sick trade 'fuelled by the country's elite'

Tanzania's albinos are being 'hunted down like animals' as greed for money and influence drives families to turn on their own loved ones in a trade allegedly fuelled by some of the country's most powerful people.

It is believed albino body parts will bring a person wealth, or luck - and for that, people are willing to pay as much as $3,000 or $4,000 for a limb, or as much as $75,000 - about £50,000 - for the 'full set', a whole body.

People with albinism are regularly attacked by people who chop their limbs off - an act which either leaves them severely mutilated, or dead.  

Since people began collecting records of the attacks, there have been 74 killings and 59 survivors of attacks. Even the dead are not safe: 16 graves have been robbed.

And these are only the recorded cases. 

The most recent case saw four-year-old Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi abducted from her home in December.

Her father and uncle were both arrested in connection with her disappearance, but - despite rewards offered of £1,130 and promises of swift action from the police - she has not been found.

Mwigulu Matonange was just 10 when he was attacked by two men as he walked home from school with a friend.

They chopped off his left arm, before disappearing back into the jungle with their 'prize'. 

'I was held down like a goat about to be slaughtered,'.

In Mwigulu's case, the two men were strangers: he had never seen them before.

But it is understood suspicion turned on Pendo's father after he took half-an-hour to report her abduction, despite there being neighbours who could have helped as soon as she was taken. 

But Jospehat - who has received death threats for his work, and was attacked in 2012 - said: 'The big fishes are behind the issue. It has been really a big discussion. If I say big fish, or big people, it is those who have enough resources, enough money.

'People sell the body parts for high prices. So it is not really small fish behind it.

'It could be politicians. It could be those people.'

Many albinos survive the attacks, but are left without arms or legs, which can sell for as much as $4000.
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