Hand over the body for burial at home, a South African court tells Zambian ex-president's family
The Zambian government and the family of the late Edgar Lungu, Zambian president from 2015 to 2021, have been embroiled in legal battle over his remains and burial.
Lungu died in June, aged 68, at a South African hospital following an undisclosed illness.
His family wanted him to be buried in South Africa and for the current President Hakainde Hichilema neither to attend his funeral nor be involved in its arrangements.
The family said it was Lungu's final wish that Hichilema should not get anywhere near his burial, but the Zambian government went to court to stop him being buried in South Africa.
The court ruled on Friday that Zambia had the authority to hold a state funeral for its former leader.
'The court noted that the Zambian courts have previously emphasized that a state funeral is a matter of public interest and protocol for a person of national significance.
'Such that even if a president has expressed a desire not to be given a state funeral, such a wish must be overridden by public interest,' said Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba.
Lungu and Hichilema were sworn political rivals. Their conflict led to Hichilema's imprisonment in 2017, when Lungu was president.
Last year, Lungu accused Hichilema's government of using police to harass him and restrict his movements. His family also said the government had initially prevented him from traveling to South Africa for treatment, a charge the government denied.
Zambia's Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha welcomed the judgment, telling reporters that he hoped the ruling would bring the matter to a close even though the family still had a right to appeal.
'This is not winning. You don't win over a burial. It's just what makes good sense, that the former president of the Republic of Zambia should be buried in his own country, the country where he was president,' said Kabesha.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
2 hours ago
- Associated Press
A Congolese refugee's 8-year struggle to reunite with her family in the US
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Congolese woman's search for safety sent her on a terrifying trek of nearly 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) through southern Africa on foot when she was just 15. Reuniting with her family has been a more difficult journey. For eight years, she clung to hope through delays and setbacks as she navigated a U.S. program that reconnects refugees with family members already in the country, and her dream of seeing them again seemed close to becoming a reality. But President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the refugee program just hours after he took office on Jan. 20, leaving her and thousands of other refugees stranded. 'It was horrible. I would never wish for anyone to go through that, ever. When I think about it, I just ...' she said, pausing to take a long breath. 'Honestly, I had given up. I told my mom maybe it was just not meant for us to see each other again.' During a brief block on the order, the woman made it into the U.S., one of only about 70 refugees to arrive in the country since Trump took office. She asked that her name not be used because she fears retaliation. 'It's been a really devastating roller coaster for those families, to be stuck in this limbo of not knowing whether their hope of being resettled in the United States will ever come true,' said Melissa Keaney, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project. The woman was an infant when her mother fled the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war in 1997, seeking shelter at Tanzania's Nyarugusu refugee camp. When the camp grew too dangerous, she fled for South Africa. She built a modest life there, always hoping she would rejoin her family, even after they were resettled in the U.S. For a time, that seemed likely, thanks to the 'follow to join' program. The refugee program had bipartisan support for decades, allowing people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution to legally migrate to the U.S. and providing a pathway to citizenship. But Trump's executive order halting the program said communities didn't have the ability to 'absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees.' Organizations like the International Refugee Assistance Project and some refugees, including the Congolese woman and her mother, sued over Trump's order in February. They said resettlement agencies were forced to lay off hundreds of workers and some refugees were left in dangerous places. 'I had a small business and told everyone, 'I'm out now,'' she said. 'It felt like this door had just been opened, and I was running toward it when — boom! — they push it shut right in front of me.' A difficult choice: Family or safety? Looking back on her time in the Nyarugusu refugee camp, she remembers teaching her little brother to ride a bike and whispering with her sister late at night. She remembers hunger and fear as attacks on refugees foraging outside the camp increased. 'You see someone hanged, and that brings fear,' she said. 'You don't know if you'll be next. You don't know if they're waiting for you.' By 2012, the camp was especially dangerous for teen girls, who were at risk of being kidnapped or assaulted. With little hope of a viable future, her mother made a plan: The 15-year-old would walk to South Africa, where she would have a better chance of finishing school and building a life. Her siblings were too young to make the journey, so she would have to go alone. She didn't know the way, so joined other travelers, often going without food during the six-week journey. The crossing from Mozambique into Zimbabwe was deep in a forest. The group she was following had hired a guide, but he abandoned them in the middle of the night. Under the thin moonlight, the group walked toward a cellphone tower in the distance, hoping to find civilization. 'How we made it to the other side was only God,' she said. A family, worlds apart In Durban, South Africa, she finished school, started a tailoring business, joined a church and volunteered helping homeless people. Then in 2016, the 19-year-old got unexpected news: Her family was being resettled in the United States, without her. 'It happened so fast,' she said. 'When I left, the idea of them going to be resettled was never in the mind at all.' Her family settled in Boise, Idaho, and her mother signed her up for the 'follow to join' program in 2017. The program often takes years and requires strict vetting with interviews, medical exams and documentation. At the start of 2020, the woman was asked to provide a DNA sample, typically one of the final steps. Then the COVID pandemic hit. For the next several years, her case foundered. A social worker would send her to the local consulate, where she'd be told to go back to the social worker. 'It went on and on,' she said. Last year, her case was handed over to lawyers volunteering their time 'and that's when we started seeing some light.' A roller coaster of hope and despair By January, she had her travel documents and gave up her home. But her plane ticket wasn't issued before Trump took office. Within hours, he suspended the refugee program, and the consulate told the woman she could no longer have her passport and visa. 'That was the worst moment of my life,' she said. Nearly 130,000 refugees had conditional approval to enter the U.S. when Trump halted the program, the administration said in court documents. At least 12,000 of them were about to travel. The aid groups' lawsuit asks a judge to declare Trump's executive order illegal. A federal judge granted a nationwide injunction temporarily blocking the order in late February. An appeals court blocked most of the injunction weeks later. But that brief legal window was enough: A group of refugee advocates donated funds to cover the woman's flight to the U.S. Her family met her at the airport in March — a joyful reunion more than a dozen years in the making. 'They made a feast, and there were drinks and songs and we'd dance,' she said, smiling. The appeals court ordered the government to admit thousands more conditionally accepted refugees, but the administration has created new roadblocks, Keaney said, including decreasing the time refugees' security screenings are valid to 30 days —- down from three years. 'It causes cascades in delays, setting people back months or more,' Keaney said. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are waiting for the courts to decide what the government must do to comply with the ruling. Rebuilding relationships The Congolese woman, now 28, is still getting to know her youngest brothers, who were children when she left for South Africa. One is now a father. 'It's been a long time and a lot has changed, you know, on my side and on their side,' she said. 'I'm still on that learning journey. We are getting to bond again.' Boise is friendly, but she hasn't escaped the worries she hoped to leave behind. She fears being exposed as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Trump administration will turn her family into targets for harassment. 'Home is where my family is. If me being known can bring any kind of negative impact ... I don't want to even imagine that happening,' she said.
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
White House responds to surge in Christian persecution crisis across sub-Saharan Africa
FIRST ON FOX - The White House, faced with an ongoing and growing tsunami of murderous attacks by Islamic State-allied groups against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, is now working closely with the State Department to find ways to stop the killing. Last week, the White House told Fox News Digital, "The Trump administration condemns in the strongest terms this horrific violence against Christians," after the U.N. reported 49 Christians were butchered with machetes on July 27 in and around a church in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while Catholic worshipers were praying for peace. Authorities say the killers were Islamist militants from the Allied Democratic Forces, also known as Islamic State DRC. In neighboring Nigeria last month, 27 Christians were reported killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in the village of Bindi Ta-hoss, where residents are predominantly Christian. Eyewitness Solomon Sunday said, "I advised my family to seek refuge in the church, which seemed the safest place at the time. I lost my wife and second daughter in the attack; they were burned [alive] by Fulani militias." Local youth leader D'Young Mangut, who helped retrieve the bodies, added, "People are being killed like chickens, and nothing is being done." "Such grisly proceedings have become commonplace in central Nigeria," John Eibner, president of Christian human rights organization Christian Solidarity International, told Fox News Digital. "It is part of a longstanding process of violent Islamization, of ethno-religious cleansing. Last Palm Sunday, 50 Christians were similarly slaughtered in nearby Bassa. Over 165 Christians have been killed in the last 4 months in Plateau State (one of Nigeria's provinces) alone," he added. "Massacres of the sort that happen in central Nigeria are also happening with increasing frequency in predominately Christian places like Congo and Mozambique. There is no simple solution." The U.K. division of Open Doors, a global Christian charity which supports and speaks up for Christians persecuted for their faith, told Fox News Digital, "The crisis facing large areas of sub-Saharan Africa is hard to overstate. It is potentially existential for the future peace and stability of several nations in the region, not least Nigeria." "Around 150,000 people have been killed in Jihadist violence over the last ten years. Over 16 million Christians have been driven from their homes and their land across the region." The Trump administration appears to be preparing for action. This week, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The Department of State is working closely with the White House to identify opportunities to further the cause of religious freedom around the world." The spokesperson added, "Religious freedom for all people worldwide is a moral and national security imperative and a U.S. foreign policy priority. As President Trump has stated, the United States will vigorously promote this freedom." Nigeria is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. Recent Open Doors research shows that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined. Local bishop Wilfred Anagbe was threatened, and some 20 of his parishioners killed, after he spoke out against the killings to a Congressional Committee in March. This week, the bishop spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital, declaring that "the attackers form part of the larger Islamic- Jihadists family headed in Nigeria by the likes of Boko Haram, ISIS West Africa and similar groups. Nigeria has had a long history with Islamic fundamentalism. (But) the violence, killing and displacements without consequences suggests a new pattern where the Islamists have resorted to use their control of official government and apparatus to continue this jihad. "There is a strong tendency by fundamentalist Muslims in Nigeria to turn the whole or part of Nigeria (in)to an Islamic State." "This is what the Nazis did to the Jews," David Onyillokwu Idah, director of the International Human Rights Commission, told Open Doors, adding, "It's ethnic cleansing, step by step." John Samuel, legal expert for Open Doors, told Fox News Digital that where the Islamist groups are operating, if Christians gather for "a prayer meeting, let's say, or go to a church, (it) could be a one-way ticket, or something very deadly." "If you're a Christian, you either convert to Islam or die." Samuel gives an example of a Nigerian Christian who was ambushed by Boko Haram fighters. According to his widow, "he was asked to deny his faith and say an Islamic prayer. He refused and he was killed instantly. You are a target. You are a target by the mere fact that you identify with Christ." Across the region, it's claimed the Islamist attackers want the land belonging to the Christians they attack. Lawyer Jabez Musa fights in court in Nigeria to get this land back. He told Fox News Digital the displaced Christians "want their land restored back to them for their livelihood. The cry is always I have been dispossessed of what belongs to me, my house, the food, foodstuff, the land. As we speak, over 64 communities in Plateau State have been dispossessed and taken over by the Fulani militants." "Only Christians are targeted, they're killed, displaced, and their lands are taken over." Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors U.K. and Ireland, told Fox News Digital that "African governments must urgently provide three things: justice - because very few of these perpetrators are ever held to account, and this impunity emboldens them. Restoration - people want their lives back, an opportunity to rebuild their homes, send their kids to school, have a future together. And protection - the state must protect them from these attacks. The security forces need to get out of their barracks and be deployed around the most vulnerable. "For too long, nobody has been talking about the horrific wholesale slaughter of Christians and moderate Muslims in Africa. The Western world needs to wake up and be outraged," she said. One grieving relative told reporters after the massacre in Nigeria's Bindi Ta-hoss this past month, "We are tired of condolences and statements. What we need is real security, not sympathy." Fox News Digital reached out to the governments of both Nigeria and the DRC but received no response. Lawyer Jabez Musa pleaded "I urge the American government, especially President Trump personally … to come to the help of Christians."
News24
12 hours ago
- News24
When journalism meets sensationalism: A nation's scrutiny on trial
Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has been under the media and public scrutiny since he made the sensational allegations about corruption in the police.
