KAMPALA, Uganda - Police have arrested 16 members of a suspected religious cult that eschews medical treatment and rescued a dying child, a senior police official said Tuesday.
Police raided the headquarters of Believers in God in Akworo, 380 kilometers (235 miles) northwest of Kampala, and rescued a 3-year-old sick child who had been denied medical treatment, district Police Commissioner Samson Onyai said.
"This group has been in existence for some time, and we want to establish whether it is a real cult," Onyai said by telephone from his office in Nebbi. "We are holding 16 people, the leader is on the run and the child is in critical condition in hospital."
The government New Vision newspaper said Tuesday that at least 10 people had died in the Believers of God camp in Akworo. The private daily Monitor said the bodies of 30 members who died after failing to receive medical treatment had been secretly buried.
Onyai said he did not have information on the reports, adding authorities were investigating.
Two years ago, as many as 800 people perished in killings masterminded by leaders of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God cult, at least 500 of them in a fire set in a chapel in the tiny southwestern town of Kanungu on March 17, 2000. The group also prohibited its members from seeking medical attention.
After the fire, police subsequently found hundreds of bodies buried in several comfortable houses belonging to cult leaders in towns in western Uganda.
The founders of the Kanungu cult were former Roman Catholics. None of the three leaders have been found, although Joseph Kibwetere, the nominal head, is thought to have perished in the fire.