DOROTHY Mulenga, the seven-year-old albino girl of Mutupa farm who had her arm chopped off and her hair pulled out by unknown people, is conscious and responding well to treatment. The grade one pupil of Mutupa Community School is receiving treatment at Kitwe Teaching Hospital. She was abducted on Tuesday around 24:00 hours by three unknown assailants, who chopped off her arm with a machete.

The assailants abducted Dorothy and cut off her arm as her mother, Purity Mulenga, who ran to her rescue, watched helplessly. Dorothy underwent an operation to re-fashion her arm on Wednesday. The girl is in a stable condition and will be discharged from hospital as soon as she fully recovers. Hospital senior medical superintendent Abidan Chansa said in an interview yesterday that the girl is conscious and in a stable condition.

Dr Chansa said the hospital will not remove Dorothy from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as earlier communicated for safety reasons. “She will remain in ICU until she is discharged because we want her to feel comfortable. The measure is also aimed at preventing a lot of people from seeing her,” Dr Chansa said. Copperbelt Commissioner of Police Charity Katanga said no arrests have been made so far, adding that investigations have continued. Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia president Rodwell Vongo is saddened that some people are being misled into attacking albinos on the basis that their (albinos’) body parts can make them wealthy.

Dr Vongo said there is need to ascertain the identity of people behind the gruesome act. He said people engaged in the attacks are tarnishing the credibility, ethics and practice of traditional health practitioners and must be brought to book. Meanwhile, Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya has condemned the attack on Dorothy, describing the act as inhuman and intolerable