Christians in the heavily Muslim areas of eastern Uganda continue to suffer physical beatings and even death for following Jesus Christ.

The latest incidents involved a married couple who were poisoned to death by the mother of a young Muslim woman they had led to faith in Christ. According to Morningstar News, the new convert also died after she reportedly ate the same poisoned food by mistake, according to testimony from her mother, Hanifa Hamiyat of Butaleja District.

Doreen Nairuba had been sharing the Gospel with Hamiyat’s 18-year-old daughter Marriam Kapisa and invited her to attend church. Kapisa, who was six months pregnant and was anticipating college entry results, attended during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.

After one of Hamiyat’s Muslim neighbors discovered Kapisa had gone to a Christian church, he reported her attendance to Hamiyat. 

Hamiyat, furious, proceeded to prepare a meal for Nairuba and her husband Jackson Wampula and poison the food with a drug. She asked Kapisa to take it to the couple.  Unaware it had been poisoned, Kapisa ate the meal with the couple. 

According to the report, after Kapisa experienced deep pain and began wailing, the mother inquired what was wrong before discovering she had eaten the food.

Although she was rushed to a hospital, Kapisa died on March 16. Nairuba died soon after on the way to the hospital. Wampula died the day after.

Hamiyat was arrested for murder and reportedly had her first hearing on April 2.

In a separate incident, hardline Muslims beat and stabbed Christian evangelists Ephraim Idube, 32, and Tefiiro Mwanani, 40, during an open-air preaching service on March 14.

After traveling from another town, TIdube and Mwanani preached the Gospel in Iganga District. Through portable speakers, they proclaimed “Christ is the Son of God” who alone saves, and that Muhammad was merely a prophet “from nowhere.”

Mwanani told Morningstar News that Muslims approached them in large numbers and started shouting at them. Members of the crowd began to beat them while another Muslim began maiming them with a sword.

“One identified as Bruhan Isabirye went and picked up a panga [long Somali sword] in a nearby butcher shop and started cutting us,” Mwanani said. “Many people including Christians came to rescue us, picked the panga from his hand. Though it was a bit late, we had bled too much, but we thank God that immediate help came and we were rushed to the hospital.”

They were transported to Iganga Hospital. Both men were in critical condition after the beating they endured.

Violence against Christians persists in Uganda. Uganda ranks as the country with the fifth-highest number of Christians killed for their faith, according to Open Doors Watch List 2024. Open Doors estimates that about 1,000 Ugandan Christians were beaten or faced death threats last year due to their faith.

Acowa refugee camp, Uganda, East Africa. Photo: Jake Lyell / Alamy