The child had been washing clothes and bathing at a river with friends and was
returning home when she was grabbed by a man wearing a balaclava.
As her friends looked on, the man shot her in the back before dragging her
away. Her headless body was found upriver a short time later.
The murder is the latest in a series of albino killings in Sub-Saharan Africa,
where sufferers of the rare skin pigmentation condition are concentrated.
Earlier this year, another 11-year-old albino child was killed close to the
same spot in Swaziland
and her hand was removed.
Police believe both children may have been targeted because of a belief by
witch doctors that the blood and body parts of albinos - who lack pigment in
their eyes, hair and skin - can bring good luck and fortune when used in
potions.
Their value for black magic practitioners sees them often fall prey to human
traffickers, one of whom was jailed for 17 years in Tanzania this week for
abducting and attempting to sell a live albino man.
The girl murdered in Swaziland was named locally as Banele Nxumalo. A man
identified as her father, Luke Nxumalo, told The Times of Swaziland that his
late uncle had also been an albino.
"What happened to my child is very painful. I wonder why albinos are targeted
because they are just humans like us and a gift from God," he said.
