Uganda: Asuman Sekidde murders one-week-old twins because Regina Namatovu wouldn’t convert to Islam
A Christian woman has been brutally attacked with a machete by her Muslim husband for refusing to convert to Islam as murderous attack resulted in the butchering of the woman’s one-week-old twins.
Regina Namatovu (spelled Navatovu by some sources), 35, was accused her husband Asuman Sekidde of having an affair after the twins were born in 2017. Sekidde had started to threaten to hurt his wife before moving to Kalangala from their home in Bumogolo village in southern Uganda.
photo/Islamic State flag
Regina is recovering after Sekidde brutally attacked her with a machete and then killed the newborns.
Neighbors rushed the woman and the babies to the local hospital. One of the twins died from a loss of blood, the other was unable to be kept warm by the unconscious mother, but died from hypothermia, reported the Ugandan Daily Monitor.
Regina lost her right hand and some fingers from her left hand in the attack.
Dr. Mark Juuko, a spokesman for Masaka Hospital, told local media that Navatovu was “still very weak and deeply traumatized”. He added that she was able to explain what happened but needs “much emotional support”.
“The local media reported that this was a case of proven adultery, but the real issue was not the paternity of the babies, it was about faith,” World Watch Monitor’s source said.
“Soon after they married, Sekidde started trying to get [his wife] to convert to Islam, but she kept resisting. This caused many disagreements between them. He only used the pregnancy as an excuse to try to get rid of her. In the recent past we have noticed an increase in domestic violence cases in households where Christian women are married to Muslims,” the source added.
Sekidde has been arrested and charged. He allegedly confessed to local reporters that he “hatched the attack [on his wife] hours before executing it”, and that he “wanted to cut off all [her] hands to teach her a lesson.”
Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List places Uganda just outside of the 50 countries where persecution of Christians is most severe.
