A 23-year-old Muslim woman in eastern Uganda who converted to Christianity on Sept. 18 was poisoned to death that night, according to local media reports.

Namata Habiiba attended a church service on Sept. 18 at the invitation of a friend in Wakawaka village, Bugiri District, and put her faith in Christ, the friend said.

Habiiba, who lived with her Muslim stepmother after her parents were killed in a vehicle accident in 2019, returned home from the church service with her friend, and her stepmother asked why she had returned so late. Habiiba told her she had attended a church service and converted to Christianity, causing her stepmother, Namu Sauya, to stop talking to her, according to the friend, whose name is withheld for security reasons.

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Sauya prepared and served food for them and then left the room, said the friend, who was fasting that day and did not eat. Within minutes, Habiiba started complaining of severe stomach pain and began to vomit, the friend said.

The friend shouted for Sauya, but there was no response, she said. Soon neighbors arrived, but Sauya had disappeared, Habiiba’s friend said.

They rushed Habiiba to a hospital in Bugiri, where a doctor gave her medication, but she soon died, the friend said. A postmortem, she said, determined she had died from ingesting rat poison.

Habiiba leaves behind a 3-year-old child, an area resident said. The father is a married Muslim who had planned to take her as his second wife, the source said.

Local officials and other villagers condemned the killing and have undertaken a search for Sauya, who remains missing, the resident said.

Habiiba’s body was laid to rest on Saturday (Sept. 24) in Musubi village, where her father was buried.