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Kenyan families weep for starvation cult victims as first bodies released

Malindi, Kenya Reuters Bereaved relatives emerged weeping from a hospital mortuary in Kenya on Tuesday after recovering the remains of loved ones whose doomsday cult leader induced them to starve themselves, according to the authorities. The bodies of more than 400 followers of the Good News International Church have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest […]

Sudan’s war exacts deadly toll on dialysis patients, leaves bodies rotting

An aerial view of the black smoke and flames at a market in Omdurman, Khartoum North, Sudan, on 17th May, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.

Cairo, Egypt Reuters Kidney dialysis patients are dying and dead bodies have been left to decompose in a morgue and in city streets as Sudan’s war rages on, despite efforts by volunteers and aid workers to keep critical healthcare running. Sudan’s health sector was already on the edge of collapse due to a lack of resources […]

Colombia, Venezuela reach agreement to find remains of victims buried by paramilitaries

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, Suriname's President Chan Santokhi, Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, Bolivia's President Luis Arce, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez, Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez, Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou and Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola pose for official photo during the South American Summit at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil on 30th May, 2023.

Reuters Colombia and Venezuela have reached an agreement to search for remains of victims who were killed by paramilitaries during Colombia’s internal armed conflict and reportedly buried in Venezuela, Colombia President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday.  The agreement follows recent confessions before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal by former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso, […]

Kenya cult death toll hits 200, with more than 600 reported missing

Police officers stand near a cordon at the scene where police are exhuming bodies of victims of Christian cult that has led to death of dozens of followers, at a forest in Shakahola area, outskirts of Malindi town, Kenyan Coast Tuesday, on 25th April, 2023.

Nairobi, Kenya AP The death toll linked to a doomsday cult in Kenya hit 201 Saturday after police exhumed 22 more bodies, most of them bearing signs of starvation, according to the coast Regional Commissioner. The bodies are believed to be those of followers of a pastor based in coastal Kenya, Paul Mackenzie. He’s alleged […]

Kenya unearths more bodies in search for death cult followers

Forensic experts and homicide detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), sort exhumed bodies of suspected followers of a Christian cult named Good News International Church, who believed that they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death, in Shakahola forest of Kilifi county, Kenya, on 11th May, 2023

Shakahola Forest, Kenya Reuters Kenyan investigators unearthed 29 more bodies on Friday in a continuing search for victims of a doomsday cult in the country’s south-east. The death toll now stands at 179. Authorities this week have searched for remains in shallow graves scattered throughout the Shakahola Forest and for any survivors as hundreds of […]

Ukrainian volunteers deliver bodies, and closure, to troops’ families

Ukraine Black Tulip1

Yampil, Ukraine Reuters Combing the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, a group of volunteers have made it their mission to search for the bodies of fallen soldiers and return them to their families. Despite the daily horrors of their work, members of the “Black Tulip” organisation say they believe they are performing a good deed by […]

Bodies of 28 men found shot dead in Burkina Faso – prosecutors

Ouagadougou, Burkina FasoReuters The bodies of 28 men killed by gunfire have been found in the north-western Burkina Faso town of Nouna, prosecutors said on Monday. An investigation has been launched into the killings which were discovered on 30th and 31st December, prosecutors said in a statement that did not provide any details on the […]

Thousands march in Bosnia in memory of Srebrenica massacre

Bosnia Visoko Srebrenica genocide commemorations1

Nezuk, Bosnia-Herzegovina AP Thousands of people joined a peace march on Friday through forests in eastern Bosnia in memory of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II. The 100-kilometre march traces a route taken by men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, which is made up primarily of Muslims, […]

Updated: Ukraine pleads for more weapons, cholera spreads in Mariupol

Ukraine Sievierodonetsk ice sports venue

Updated: 12:50pm (AEST) Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Ukraine pleaded to Western countries for faster deliveries of weapons as better-armed Russian forces pounded the east of the country, and for humanitarian support to combat growing outbreaks of deadly diseases. In Sievierodonetsk, the small city that has become the focus of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine and one […]

“So many bodies piled up”: Hong Kong funeral services overwhelmed by COVID

China Hong Kong coronavirus isolation facility

Hong Kong, China Reuters Traditional wooden coffins are running short in Hong Kong as authorities scramble to add mortuary space in the global financial hub’s battle on COVID-19, which is swamping funeral parlours. “I have never seen so many bodies piled up together,” said funeral director Lok Chung, 37, who has been working round the […]