A series of attacks and crimes targeting people with albinism across Madagascar has left communities frightened and traumatized and led to the arrest of about a dozen people, Josvah Maheny said.
Radio France Internationale reported on 24 May that the roundup followed a string of violent incidents, including the kidnapping of an eight-month-old baby on Sunday 17 May in the south of Madagascar and the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old in the northwest on the same day. Earlier, in early April, a young person with albinism was assassinated, according to local accounts.
Maheny, speaking for affected communities, said the violence has risen recently in the southern and western regions and that "the whole community feels threatened and traumatized," describing what he called a growing psychological insecurity among families and neighbours. The arrests, authorities say, covered roughly a dozen suspects; details about charges and prosecutions have not been released publicly.
Experts and campaigners say the attacks are rooted in dangerous local beliefs. Olivia Rajerison told reporters that kidnappings and murders stem from deeply rooted mystical beliefs in some regions that attribute magical or occult powers to parts of the bodies of people with albinism. She said those beliefs include claims that the eyes contain diamonds, gold or a mercury‑like magical substance and that such ideas, when combined with extreme poverty and ignorance, have fuelled a worrying trafficking dynamic.
Rajerison also emphasized the medical reality: that people with albinism have bodies like any other human bodies, affected only by a genetic defect in melanin production. Advocates argue that clarifying this fact is central to stemming the violence and that public information must reach rural areas where superstitions persist.
Last year the National Assembly adopted a text intended to protect people with albinism, but the High Constitutional Court blocked its promulgation on the grounds of legal inconsistencies. That gap in formal protection has become a focal point for campaigners who say the law should be fixed and implemented quickly so communities have concrete safeguards.
Those same advocates want a major awareness campaign to dismantle beliefs that attribute supernatural powers to people with albinism and are calling for the three recent cases to be investigated in Antananarivo for fear of local pressure on provincial courts. They say community radios broadcasting in local dialects should be used to explain that albinism is a hereditary genetic condition and to counter superstitions that drive abductions and killings.
The arrests mark a rare, visible law‑enforcement response, but they also highlight persistent tensions: a text to protect albinos exists on paper yet was blocked; communities accuse local systems of being ill-equipped to investigate or resist the informal networks exploiting mystical beliefs; and victims’ families fear reprisals or interference if investigations remain in provincial courts. Rajerison warned that without both legal fixes and a sustained public education push, the mix of superstition and poverty will keep feeding the trade in body parts and the attacks themselves.
Back in the communities, Maheny said families are living under what he called an "insécurité psychologique," a condition of fear and trauma that will not lift simply with arrests. Until the legal hurdles are cleared and a focused awareness campaign reaches the rural areas where these ideas take hold, the immediate arrests may not be enough to end the threat facing people with albinism in Madagascar.
