A Ugandan Christian girl mysteriously died on Sunday while being treated for injuries sustained as a result of an allegedly abusive Muslim uncle.
According to Morning Star News, 16-year-old Namwase Aisha died while undergoing treatment in Iganga Hospital in eastern Uganda, apparently due to the medication that was administered to her.
Aisha and her sister, Nabagabana Fatuma, had fled from their uncle after he beat them with a wooden rod for converting to Christianity last month. Aisha previously told a source for the Morning Star News that their uncle had starved them for three days.
They were only able to escape after a friend of their uncle broke the padlock. When the friend went to fetch the uncle, the two girls decided to flee to the church in Pallisa District where they were converted.
Church leaders later took them to the hospital for trauma counselling and medical care. However, Morning Star News reports that their Muslim relatives eventually tracked the two girls to the hospital on March 7.
According to sources in the hospital, Aisha was responding well to treatment when her relatives came to visit. On Sunday, however, her condition started to deteriorate and she never recovered.
The timing of the death has raised suspicions of foul play.
"We suspect that the death of our sister Aisha could be related to the medication given the morning of (March 8), which has connection with the arrival of the Muslim relatives on Saturday," the source, who cannot be named for security reasons, told Morning Star News.
Church leaders claim that Aisha's body was swollen and smelled of medication at the time of her death.
"(It) is an indication that her body could have been injected with unknown drug," a pastor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Morning Star News by phone.
Hospital officials initially identified the cause of death as an overdose. Sources said that the officials later told church leaders that Aisha died as a result of depression caused by her injuries.
