778 members of the "Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God" in Uganda had died on March 17, 2000 in Uganda as a result of a mass murder.
March 17, 2000, was the new end of the world, a doomsday they said would come "with ceremony, and finality". The Movement held a huge party, where they roasted three bulls and drank 70 crates of soft drinks. Minutes after the members arrived at the party, nearby villagers heard an explosion, and the building was gutted in an intense fire that killed all 530 in attendance, including dozens of children. The windows and doors of the building had been boarded up to prevent people from leaving. The fire alerted the Ugandan authorities as to what had been occurring in the Movement.
Several days before Movement leader Dominic Kataribabo was seen buying 50 liters of sulfuric acid, which may have started the fire.
Another party was planned for the eighteenth, which officials believe sect leaders had announced in order to mislead authorities as to their plans. The five principal cult leaders were assumed to have died in the fire.
Four days after the church fire, police investigated Movement properties and discovered hundreds of bodies at sites across southern Uganda. Six bodies were discovered sealed in the latrine of the Kanungu compound, as well as 153 bodies at a compound in Buhunage, 155 bodies at Dominic Kataribabo's estate at Rugazi, where they had been poisoned and stabbed, and another 81 bodies lay at leader Joseph Nymurinda's farm. Police stated that they had been murdered about three weeks before the church inferno.
Other than the individuals who died in the fire, medical examiners determined that the majority of dead sect members had been poisoned. After searching all sites, the police concluded that the final death toll had settled at 778.
After interviews and an investigation were conducted, the police ruled out a cult suicide, and instead consider it to be a mass murder conducted by Movement leadership. They believe that the failure of the doomsday prophecy led to a revolt in the ranks of the sect, and the leaders set a new date with a plan to eliminate their followers.
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