Government tracing for the body of Ugandan priest killed in Mexico

Government is yet to get official details of circumstances under which a Ugandan priest was killed in Mexico.
Ministry of Internal affairs on Monday also said they are still tracing for the whereabouts of the body of Father John Ssenyondo who was reportedly killed Mexico where he had worked for five years.
Mr Fred Opolot, the ministry spokesperson in an interview with Daily Monitor said they had contacted the Mexican Embassy in Kenya about Father Ssenyondo’s death but they were yet to get the details.
“Our counterparts in Kenya told us that they had written to the Mexican government to establish the details of his death. Besides, we do not know which part of Mexico his body is,” he said.
“But we are trying all we can to see how we can help,” he added.

Father Ssenyondo was reportedly identified by forensic experts in Mexico among the remains found in a mass grave. He had been missing for six months since he was reported kidnapped in south-western Guerrero state Mexico.
The grave was located by the Mexican Federal Police looking for 43 trainee teachers who went missing in the area on September 26.
Father Ssenyondo, 55, was abducted on April 30 by unknown gunmen, who blocked a road and forced him into their car. His dental records were used to identify him.
Father Ssenyondo was born on December 25, 1958 in Masaka district, Uganda. He was ordained priest aged 33 years on 3 August 1991.
He went to serve as a missionary in the Mexican Diocese Chilpancingo-Chilapa in 2008. He worked for sometime in the parish of Tlacotepec, in a community called Los Hoyos and was later transferred to the church of Nejapa.
While in Guerrero, according to a story by the Mexican news agency, Quadratín, Father Ssenyondo had already been a victim of crime. Father Victor Manuel Aguilar, Vicar General of the Chilpancingo-Chilapa Diocese is quoted by Aleteia saying that Fr. John survived an attack a year earlier in his room. The criminal gang left him tied-up and stole a car and household goods.

On 15 May this year, the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa began a campaign of prayers in parishes, hoping that Father Ssenyondo would be returned safely.
According to the BBC, DNA tests carried out earlier this month suggested that the bodies in the hidden grave near the town of Ocotitlan - where Father Ssenyondo's remains were found- were not of the students.
The case of the missing trainee teachers caused outrage in Mexico and prompted a nationwide search.
On Thursday, a judge in Guerrero charged the city’s former mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, accused of being the mastermind behind the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers.