A Christian pastor has died in Uganda after being poisoned with insecticide. He had previously survived being attacked with knives.
Sources in his village said Micah Byamukama, pastor of Kasecha Baptist Church in Kibuku District, died after he challenged belief in supernatural creatures in Arabic mythology.
The pastor said that "the true God is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered the power of Satan including the Islamic Jinn", according to Morning Star News. "He maintained that the Islamic Jinn are acts of Satan and should be denounced," reported the non-profit website which covers issues involving persecuted Christians.
A widower with no children who lived with another member of the church, Pastor Byamukama was alone when he received a visit from a guest. Shortly after the guest left, the pastor began having stomach pains. He was rushed to Kabweri Health Centre, where the pain continued, accompanied by vomiting and diarrhoea, leading up to his death.
Pastor Byamukama was an animist who believed in ancestral spirits before putting his faith in Christ and changing his name from Mukama to Byamukama, 'All for God'.
About 85 per cent of the people in Uganda are Christian and 11 per cent Muslim, with some eastern areas having large Muslim populations. The country's constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one's faith and convert from one faith to another.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in eastern Uganda.
Last month, Muslims in Pallisa District beat and raped a young Christian woman for testifying that a mosque leader killed her father because of his faith. Also in April, a Muslim in Kachomo village, Budaka District, attacked his wife for becoming a Christian, telling a judge that Islam allows him to kill any apostate.
