Cyclone Idai Victims Not Buried In Mass Graves- Minister

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo dismissed reports that people who died from Cyclone Idai had been buried in mass graves.

Cyclone Idai has left 104 people dead while businesses, homes and schools were destroyed. Speaking at a press briefing after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Moyo said those who could not take their loves ones to their home areas buried them in Chimanimani urban centre. Said Moyo:

The mortuary in Chimanimani had no electricity and together with the other people the bereaved were able to bury their loved ones. They were communicating with us. We had heard that they were going to bury them in mass graves and even parliamentarians were asking me questions thinking that we had buried people in mass graves. We heard about it and I gave instruction that nobody gets buried in a mass grave. The youths were mobilised there to dig graves and we were able to find somebody who gave us coffins. What happened is that a mother was buried together with the child. To me that could have only been the decision of the family not us as Government because we discourage people being buried in mass graves.

Related:

• Cyclone Idai: Burial Of Victims Starts In Zimbabwe

• WATCH: Heartbreaking Scenes At The Mass Burial Of Cyclone Idai Victims

• PICTURES: Burial Of Munashe Jena (13) Killed By Cyclone At St Charles Luwanga

More: Chronicle