Daughter of Christian convert sold to witchdoctor rescued, son believed to have been sacrificed

July 2018, after Sulaiman Pulisi, a former imam converted to Christianity, he discovered his 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son missing from their home in eastern Uganda’s Kachiribong village, Kasasira Town in Kibuku District.

“A radical Muslim woman called Sania Muhammad [of Kasasira, in eastern Uganda] who had connections with Muslim men used to look for children of converts from Islam and sell them to this particular Muslim witchdoctor,” the shopkeeper, Joseph Sodo, told Morning Star News based on information that investigators had revealed to him.

Sodo has a shop in western Uganda’s Nakalama village, Ntwetwe, Nankadwa Sub-County, Kyankwanzi District and one day, he asked the young girl that came into his shop where she was from.

She disclosed that she was from Kachiribong village in Kibuku District.  It wasn't until the following week that Sodo had a chance to ask her another question - how she had come to be in Western Uganda.

“I was speechless to discover that the girl is from a born-again, former imam but stays with a well-known Muslim witchdoctor or shaman named Isifu Abdullah, who makes use of amulets and charms inscribed with verses of the Koran in warding off evil forces,” Sodo explained.

Abdullah is additionally known as a traditional "healer" and therefore police suspect he offers human sacrifice as a part of his witchcraft techniques.  "Hence he is feared by the residents of Ntwetwe,” Sodo said.

The girl disclosed to Sodo that her brother had disappeared two months after they had arrived in Nakalama, and that once that happened, Abdullah had taken her as his wife.

The girl had reportedly asked Abdullah where her brother was after he had disappeared to which the only response she would get was “Allah who is all-knowing knows.”

She was rescued on September 16 and returned home.

We are mourning for our son who is alleged to have been sacrificed,” Pulisi told Morning Star News. “We are mourning with my daughter, who has been used as a sex object by the Muslim shaman.”

Abdullah and Muhammad have both been arrested and were awaiting charges as of September 28.  Officers are still investigating and looking for others that may have been involved.