‘Dead’ woman turns up in Mayuge

She had been pronounced dead. Madina Namulawa’s relatives conducted her last funeral rites two months ago thinking she had passed away in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So when the 29-year-old Namulawa went to Busakira village in Mayuge district last week, it was all joy for the family.

“Allah is great! I thought my daughter had passed away. We performed the last funeral rites for her soul to rest in eternal peace,” Zainabu Baliwolakyi, her mother, said.

Namulawa was last week brought back by the Police who rescued her and her two children from a camp belonging to the Salaf Muslim sect in Nambugu village, Namayingo district.

Baliwolakyi said they had kept vigil for 40 days thinking she had died. Baliwolakyi said Namulawa and her husband Muhammadi Mulwasira left Busakira village in January 2013 to take their four children for studies in Iganga district, but never returned. They belong to the Salaf Muslim sect.

“Ever since they left, they never communicated with us, but I used to hear news on the local radios about the Salafs. So, I thought my daughter and grandchildren had been taken to Congo to join the Allied Democratic Forces and had perished,” Baliwolakyi said.

The Police last week took back two women and six children to Mayuge district. Namulawa said she was staying at the Salaf camp where women were not allowed to own phones or talk to anyone who did not belong to the sect.

“I could neither talk to my parents on phone nor write them letters,” Namulawa said. She said she was not allowed to talk to her parents since they belong to the Suni Muslim sect.

“I am happy to reunite with my parents. In the camp, I was in captivity,” she said.

She added that her other two children, Twahiri Balikwolakyi, 11 and Ahmed Mulwasira, 8, ran away from the camp after seeing the Police. She said Muhammadi was taken to Congo by other Salaf leaders to join the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group.

According to Muhammadi’s elder brother, Sadi Mulwasira, he (Muhammadi) was detained in the DRC over criminal trespass.

“He was taken to join the ADF, but he committed a crime of criminal trespass,” said Sadi.

He added that he tried to trace Muhammadi’s whereabouts with the help of Uganda Red Cross Society.

Muhammed Mwima, Namulawa’s father, thanked the Government for returning his daughter home. “It was a trying moment for us. I would silently weep over my daughter’s death though I did not see her corpse or grave,” Mwima said.

Over the last one month, the Police have raided a number of camps in eastern Uganda run by the Salaf Muslim sect.

These operations were aimed at bringing to book suspects implicated in the recent string of murders of senior Muslim clerics.