Cameroon Albinos Ask for Greater Attention, Care
Voice of America
YAOUNDÉ - International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13 has been observed in Cameroon, with albinos asking for more government and community care and protection. Those living with this hereditary genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment in skin, hair and eyes, say stigma, violence, superstition and killing have greatly lessened, but abuses have not been eliminated.
One hundred and sixty albinos and their family members assembled at the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos office in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, to mark International Albinism Awareness Day. Among them is 16-year-old albino Ronald Essi, who said he was abandoned because of his condition. Essi said he wants to become a police officer to defend his country Cameroon and punish civilians who abuse albinos' rights. He said his mother abandoned him when he was two years old. He said his grandmother resisted family pressure to kill him. He said he has been living in the streets since 2015, when his grandmother died.
Congolese police officers board trucks after an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 22, 2025.
Police officers remove anti-far-right protesters blocking the route of a far-right demonstration, a day before the German election, in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 22, 2025.
A railway worker guides a train in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 13, 2025. Vietnam's National Assembly on Feb. 19 approved the use of Chinese loans to build an $8 billion rail link from its largest northern port city to the border with China.
FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy casts his ballot as his wife, Olena, stands nearby at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Kyiv on July 21, 2019.
Dana Shem Tov, sister of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, reacts as she watches his televised release by Hamas militants at the family home in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22, 2025. A woman mourns at a memorial for deceased hostages Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz at “Hostages Square,” while Israelis gather while waiting for the release of six hostages in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 22, 2025. Omer Wenkert, a hostage held in Gaza since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is escorted by Hamas militants as he is released in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 22, 2025.
A mahout sprays water over elephants during their daily bath in a river, at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on Feb. 16, 2025 as Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary. Tourists take pictures as elephants return to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after taking their daily bath in a river in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025. Elephants stroll across the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025.
People wear merchandise in support of US President Donald Trump at a vendor booth during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025.
A poster shows pictures of the Bibas family, top row from second left: Yarden, Shiri, and their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Words above read, '37 members of Kibbutz Nir Oz are still missing.' Palestinian Hamas militants and people gather at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 20, 2025.
FILE - Students attend a new student orientation at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas, Aug. 22, 2015.
People displaced by armed gang attacks take refuge in the town hall of the Kenscoff neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 13, 2025.
FILE - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks at the White House in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. Bessent spoke with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng by phone on Feb. 21, expressing frustration with that nation's efforts at rebalancing its economy.
Members of the M23 movement monitor the area following the takeover of the city at the Place de l'Independance in Bukavu on Feb. 20, 2025. M23 rebels guard outside the South Kivu province administrative office, at the center of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, Feb. 16, 2025.