According to Ugandan authorities, 80 members of a religious cult from Uganda who had been persuaded to travel to Ethiopia and starve themselves have been returned home.
They claim that their pastor told them that after a 40-day fast, they would "meet Jesus Christ.".
The hunt for cult leader Simon Opolot is currently being conducted by a joint police operation.
It is claimed that a different religious leader in Kenya persuaded hundreds of people to starve to death.
The 80 Christ Disciples Church members reportedly sold their belongings earlier this year and then traveled 500 kilometers (320 miles) from a rural area in eastern Uganda to southern Ethiopia.
The Daily Monitor newspaper quotes Simon Mundeyi, the spokesperson for Uganda's internal affairs ministry, as saying that the returnees claim Pastor Opolot persuaded them to fast for 40 days so they can encounter Jesus on the 41st day.
"The prerequisite was that they had to be in Ethiopia to meet Jesus, and he said that the world would end right away. ".
But as soon as the Ethiopian government found out about their arrival in March, they were picked up and cared for until the repatriation was planned, according to the AFP news agency.
The Daily Monitor cites Mr. Mundeyi as saying that the group's members, who were mostly teachers and government employees, were already extremely frail due to their lengthy journey without any food.
At least 700 Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God members from Uganda died in 2000 after being imprisoned in a church that was later set on fire.
Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is currently being held on suspicion of encouraging people to starve themselves to death in Kenya. In a remote forest, shallow graves containing more than 280 bodies have been discovered.