ICC Note: According to a pastor in Uganda, a group of five Muslim men gang-raped his 17-year-old daughter because he ignored their warning to cease worship services. When the church members began to arrive at the building, the unidentified attackers fled the scene. The girl’s father reported that she now needs trauma counseling and her injuries were severe enough that he is trying to send her to a hospital in Kampala for specialized care.
04/14/2015 Uganda (Morning Star News) – Five Muslims in eastern Uganda gang-raped the 17-year-old daughter of a pastor because the church leader ignored their warnings that he stop worship services, she said.
The daughter (name withheld) of the pastor of New Hope Church was approaching the church building at Kiryolo, Kaderuna Sub-County, Budaka District, at about 7:30 p.m. on March 28 when the men took her into bushes and assaulted her, an area church leader told Morning Star News. The site is about 300 yards from her home.
“The five Muslims took hold of me, and they raped me there,” she told the Morning Star News source. “I tried to scream, but they threatened to kill me. One of them said, ‘Your father should stop this prayer meeting of trying to change Muslims to become Christians and close the church building – we have warned him several times.’”
The suspects, whom she did not recognize, fled when church members arrived at the building for an all-night prayer vigil. They rushed her to a local medical clinic, and she later transferred to Mbale General Hospital.
Her father (name withheld) said her injuries are so serious that he would like to send her for specialized treatment at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala. He said she continues to be traumatized.
“The girl still has problems communicating,” he said. “She just says a few words and then keeps quiet. She needs trauma counseling.”
The pastor said he had received several threatening text messages.
“One of the short messages in my phone read, ‘Be you informed that we do not want your church in this area. If you continue worship here, then you will live to regret it,’” he said.
