Ugandan police arrested several suspects this week in a gruesome abortion case that left both a young woman and her baby dead.
The body of Irene Kyakunda, 19, was discovered in a swamp last week near the Ugandan city of Kampala after her college classmates reported her missing, LifeNews previously reported. She had been tied with ropes and her dress was torn to shreds; she also had blood on her legs, according to the news outlet New Vision Uganda. Authorities later discovered that Kyakunda suffered massive internal bleeding from a botched abortion.
New details about the case indicate that Kyakunda first attempted to abort her unborn baby on her own with the morning after pill in October. Five weeks later, the student realized that she was still pregnant, according to New Vision.
Her friends told authorities that she decided to have a surgical abortion. Kyakunda was eight weeks pregnant, the report states.
Kyakunda was last seen around 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, at the college as she began walking to her rented residence, according to the report. The next morning, when a friend called her “for the morning jogging routine, her phone was switched off,” Kyakunda’s friend Mutesi told the news outlet.
Police chief Gen. Kale Kayihura said the young woman visited an abortion clinic in the Kampala city suburbs, but a nurse referred her to another abortion clinic in Nateete. Neither she nor her baby left the abortion clinic alive, according to police.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
“After realizing that Kyakunda had died, the masterminds carried her body and dumped it in [the swamp] as camouflage,” the police chief said.
The police have four suspects in custody, according to the report. Murder charges are pending.
The young woman’s family told the news outlet that they also plan to take legal action against the suspects.
The young woman was a first-year student at the Kampala International University in Uganda, where she studied public administration, the report states.
