Ivory Coast families mourn their dead; state funerals planned

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Families in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, mourned their dead on Wednesday, a tradition on the All Saints Day holiday. But most people killed in political violence last week have yet to be buried, an official said.

"We have counted around 150 bodies at the mortuaries," said medical doctor Zeze Bah, the government-appointed coordinator for the burial of victims of a popular uprising against military rule and of the ethnic violence that followed last week.

He told Reuters the government would decide on Thursday the details of a state funeral it was planning to organize for the victims, who had been shot dead, killed by grenades, stabbed or clubbed to death.

He said the bodies had been embalmed at the government's request by the state undertaker, IVOSEP.

Following "people-power" protests on October 24 and 25, which helped Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian from the southwest, to power, scores of people were killed in fighting between sympathizers of his Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party and those of the Rally of the Republics (RDR).

The RDR of former Prime Minister Alassane Outtara draws its support mainly from Muslims from the north of the country.

Abidjan has five sprawling cemeteries. All have sections for Muslims and non-Muslims which are not fenced off or otherwise separated.

A caretaker at Abidjan's Williamsville cemetery said officials had told him the state burial would be there.

An official at the Anyama mortuary, where 18 bodies found floating over the weekend in Abidjan's lagoon had been brought, said the bodies there were ready for the funeral.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See related sites about Africa

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.