Courtesy Photo/Illustrative.
A young Christian woman in Luwooko village, Buwunga Sub-County, Bugiri district, in eastern Uganda was ambushed, strangled and severely beaten by a radical Islamist group for sharing the Gospel with Muslims in her area who subsequently became born-again.
Lydia Nabirye, 23, says she was attacked on 7th, April 2020 after visiting a former Muslim in Bukolwa village who was mourning the loss of a son who had died.
“They slapped me, and others hit me with sticks, saying that they were out to kill me because I was changing Muslims to become Christians,” she said.
Neighbors heard Nabirye’s cry and immediately called police.
“The assailants fled when officers arrived,” Nabirye stated, three of which she could identify.
Speaking to USA-based Christian Persecution Watchdog Morning Star News, Nabirye said she shared her faith with a young Muslim woman in early March who subsequently became a Christian.
The former Muslim woman, unnamed by the Morning Star News for security reasons, received threats from her Muslim family due to her new faith, so Nabirye’s family gave her refuge in their home, where six other former Muslims are staying due to threats, she said.
Nabirye’s father, Paul Kaikiya, an evangelist, is very fearful of a possible attack again.
“When I met Nabirye at her home on April 14, she was still in pain from multiple injuries – head, right eye and left hand injuries,” an area source told Morning Star News.
“At the moment Nabirye’s father is very fearful of a possible attack. The Muslims in Luwooko village have sworn to harm Kaikiya. The family needs prayers at this difficult moment, especially for the security and the safety of the Muslim-background believers,” the source added.
Elsewhere in Odwarata village, Pallisa District, a former Muslim woman, Sylvia Shamimu Nabafa, 27, is also recovering from injuries after her family beat her for becoming a Christian.
“I found myself in the hospital bed at Palissa Health Centre,” she said.
Sylvia put her faith in Christ in January this year, and was attending church services secretly for five week.
However, as she was leaving church on 16 February, 2020, a Muslim neighbor saw her and reported to her father, Haji Juma Suleiman, Sylvia said during an interview with Morning Star News.
That evening, her father asked her if she was a Christian, said Nabafa, who at the time was five months pregnant.
“I did not respond. He began hitting me with kicks and blows,” Nabafa told Morning Star News. “He then took a blunt object and hit my right leg. I started bleeding, and the next thing I knew, I found myself in the hospital bed at Palissa Health Centre.”
She was discharged after six days at the hospital, on Feb. 22, she said. “The doctor said that the unborn child is well,” Morning Star News reports.
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