by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A 60-year-old Ugandan evangelist was decapitated by suspected Islamic extremists in Luuka District, Uganda on October 16, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. An elder in the local Church of Christ congregation, Alex Mukasa of Busandha B village, Bukoova Town council in Luuka District had led three Muslims to Christ prior to his murder.
Alex’s beheaded body was found on October 17, after he failed to return home from going out the previous day, his brother Elukana Kyotanalya told MSN. “I waited for my brother, but he never returned back home,” Elukana said. “It was at 7 a.m. on October 17 when I got information that his motorcycle was abandoned along the Bukoova road, and that his body was beheaded and dumped in a sugarcane plantation.” The murderer(s) took Alex’s head and threw it into the local Nasibira swamp, where it was found by farmers planting rice several days later, MSN said.
An evangelist, Alex had been threatened by local Muslims prior to his death; the Islamists demanded that he leave his village leading three Muslims to put their faith in Christ, Elukana told MSN. Police have arrested two suspects, Ibrahim Galandi and Abubakari Bunyinza, who had threatened Mukasa and other Christians, sources told MSN. District Police Commander John Fautine Oese said other suspects were being searched for.
A Christian who knew Alex, and did not want to be named for security reasons, told MSN: “[Alex] was a peaceful man whose murder shook the community members and the Church of Christ at large. He was a very respectable elder and leader who frequently offered timely advice and God’s messages to warring parties within our community. We were shocked to find out that he had been butchered by Muslim extremists.”
Alex Mukasa’s murder was “just the latest” of many attacks on Christians by Muslim extremists in Uganda, MSN said.