A father who wanted to sell his three albino children for use in witchcraft rituals was arrested in Mozambique before being able to close the deal, police said on Monday.
Police in the northwestern region of Tete, said three children aged nine to 16 were rescued at the weekend after an anonymous tip-off. Their uncle was arrested alongside their father.
The pair allegedly planned to traffic the minors to neighbouring Malawi where they could be sold for the equivalent of about $40,000, local police spokesman Feliciano da Camara told a press conference.
Both men deny any involvement in the case.
“Investigations were carried out and it was possible to rescue (the) three minors… from captivity,” Câmara said.
Albinism, caused by a lack of melanin, the pigment that colours skin, hair and eyes, is a genetic anomaly that concerns hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.
Some sub-Saharan African countries have suffered a wave of assaults against albinos, whose body parts are sought for witchcraft practices in the belief that they bring luck and wealth.