Muslims kill Christian woman for refusing a mosque to be built on her property in Uganda
A group of Muslims killed a Christian woman from Naigobya village in eastern Uganda because she refused to allow her property to be used for a mosque.
Muslim relatives and some imams had asked Efranse Kadondo, a Catholic, in March to donate part of her property for a mosque. A relative named Zainabu Kasubuza led the group in forcefully trying to convince her, according to a local source.
The 50-year-old woman refused to give in to the pressure.
"I told Zainabu that if I have to surrender part of my land, then I will give it to the Catholic Church," the source quoted Kadondo as saying, as reported by Morning Star News.
Her answer angered Kasubuza, who, along with the imams, chased her away from her property.
Kanondo stayed with a relative in another village. On June 17, she went to the police in Lakabuku and reported that her property had been illegally seized.
Six days after she filed the report, Kanondo was found dead in her home.
A parish priest in Kiroba said Kanondo attended an overnight prayer meeting before she was killed. She left at around 4 a.m. that day.
The relative she was staying with said she never made it home that morning, but she saw some Muslims near her house on the evening that Kanondo was in church.
"The next morning, Efranse did not show up, so I decided to go to her house, only to see police around the house the evening of June 23 with Shaban and a number of people," the relative told Morning Star News.
Kanondo's body was found in a pool of blood in her own house. Her hands were broken and there were bruises around her neck. Her attackers reportedly had planned to bury her secretly but did not succeed.
Autopsy reports showed that Kanondo was murdered.
Six men suspected of being involved in the crime were arrested. Kasubuza, the relative who wanted Kanondo to donate her property for the mosque, fled the village.
The Uganda population is comprised of 85 percent Christians and 11 percent Muslims. However, eastern Uganda has a high percentage of Muslims, making it a place of great persecution for Christians.
Last month, a boy was beaten and burned by his father for having converted to Christianity.
The boy was caught eating during the daytime Ramadan fast. His father tied him to a banana tree and beat him with wood that was taken from the fire. Some parts of the banana tree caught fire and burned the boy until neighbors came to rescue him.
And just a few days before Kanondo was found dead, a Muslim woman in the same village poisoned her grandchild because her daughter-in-law fed the baby girl during Ramadan.
