The Joint Civil Society Platform on Good Governance has called for concerted efforts against attacks on persons with albinism.

The call follows the recent abduction of Goodson Makanjira, a 14-year-old boy inside his family’s house in Traditional Authority Chilikumwendo in Dedza.

Goodson’s body was later found with some body parts chopped off.

One of the members of the platform, Bright Kampaundi said all relevant stakeholders need to work on a preventative mechanism, by among other things, implementing the National Action Plan on Persons with Albinism that was developed in 2018.

“We have to realize that preventive mechanisms don’t start with the government. They start with the immediate family members,” Kampaundi told a news conference in Lilongwe.

“You can agree with me that in all the cases that we have had people with albinism being killed or abducted, members of their families have been involved.”

Kampaundi said stopping attacks, abductions and killings of people with albinism requires collective mechanisms.

“It starts with the people where these people with albinism are available so we talk about the family members, we talk about the villagers as a whole, we talk about the chiefs and the whole community.”

On Monday last week, community members in Machinga rescued a 16-year-old boy with albinism from suspected abductors.