Source: www.morningstarnews.org
Date: January 27, 2021
Assailants in Uganda strangle mother of eight still in pain from prior beating.
By Our East Africa Correspondent
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim villagers on Sunday (Jan. 24) attacked the wife and children of a pastor in eastern Uganda who is still receiving hospital treatment for a previous assault, sources said.
Nearly four weeks after the assault on pastor Moses Nabwana and his wife, Lovisa Naura, in Nankodo Sub-County, Kibuku District on Dec. 27, three area Muslims broke into their home at about 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, injuring two of their children and the mother of eight who is still recovering from the prior beating, she said.
“I heard loud noises and plates being broken. The children and I woke up,” Naura told Morning Star News. “The attackers had broken the door and entered in. One started strangling me, while another threw one of my daughters outside through the window and broke the skin on her leg.”
Her brother-in-law and his family rushed over, and the Muslims fled, she said.
“The assailants left behind a Somali sword, which I think they possibly had planned to use to rape and then kill me,” she said.
Naura said her 10 year-old daughter sustained a deep cut on her knee, and her 12-year-old daughter suffered an eye injury. Naura has neck pain and was still suffering from the prior assault, an area source said.
Previously a group of area Muslims beat Pastor Nabwana with sticks and a blunt object on his head, back, stomach and chest, and he returned to a hospital in Kumi on Jan. 15, Naura said.
“His health condition needs more attention, and preferably an Intensive Care Unit,” she told Morning Star News by phone. “I am still in great pain, and the doctor has recommended that my uterus, which is seriously damaged, needs to be removed. This will need a big amount of money.”
A church leader visited Naura and her family at their thatched-roof dwelling on Friday (Jan. 22). He said they need protection as well as financial assistance.
“She is still in pain and needs basic assistance in the absence of the husband, the bread-winner,” he said.
So far the church has paid medical bills of about $1,000 for the couple, and the church leader said further medical bills for them will amount to about $950.
Naura had been hospitalized for five days after the previous attack, incited by mosque leaders announcing that a local imam had left Islam for Christianity. A group of Muslims beat her and Pastor Nabwana and demolished parts of their church building.
The former imam, whose name is withheld for security reasons, put his faith in Christ on Dec. 5 and on Dec 27 joined the church worship. The new Christian was given the opportunity to share the journey of how he came to faith in Christ, and when mosque leaders heard the celebration, they announced the apostasy.
The assaults were the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.