mourners - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Namibia’s late president Geingob buried

NAMIBIA'S late president Hage Geingob, who died in hospital on February 4, weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, was buried at the Heroes Acre with thousands of mourners, including 25 heads of state and former presidents in attendance. The burial was on the outskirts of Windhoek following 20 days of mourning. Soldiers gave Geingob a 21-gun salute while K-8 fighter jets flew past. Geingob, 82, Namibia's two-time prime minister and third president since its independence from minority-ruled South Africa in 1990, has been in charge of the sparsely populated and mostly arid southern African nation since 2015. He was serving his…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Kenyans mourn marathon world record holder Kiptum as body returns home

NEWS

HUNDREDS of Kenyans paid their respects as the body of marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who dreamed of breaking the race's storied two-hour barrier, was driven to his home village for burial. Kiptum, 24, and his coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed earlier this month when the runner lost control of the vehicle he was driving in the Rift Valley and crashed into a tree. The pathologist's report said he died of head injuries. Singing hymns and holding hands, mourners accompanied the convoy carrying Kiptum's flower-lined casket as it departed a morgue in the western Kenyan city of Eldoret. The casket was…

Oct

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Mourners hail dead Russian mercenary Prigozhin as hero of the people

WORLD

AT memorials to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in an unexplained plane crash exactly 40 days ago, dozens of mourners hailed the mutinous mercenary chief as a patriotic hero of Russia who had spoken truth to power. The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St. Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on August 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin's four bodyguards and a crew of three. It is still unclear what caused the plane to crash two months to the day since Prigozhin's failed mutiny. The Kremlin said on Aug. 30 that…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Brazil bids farewell to beloved soccer star Pele

NEWS

EDUARDO SIMÕES EMOTIONAL crowds bid Brazil soccer legend Pele a final farewell, lining the streets of Santos to watch his coffin taken to its final resting place from the city's stadium where 230,000 mourners had filed past his open casket. Young and old embraced as the funeral procession wound its way through the coastal city's streets for hours, with some fans in tears and others cheering and drumming for a national hero who rose from barefoot poverty to become one of the greatest and best-known athletes in modern history. "It's an irreparable loss for Brazil," said Brazil's newly sworn-in President…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Mourners weep over 19 coffins after Tanzania plane crash

NEWS

WEEPING relatives of the 19 people who died when a plane crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania filed past a row of coffins in the lakeside town of Bukoba on Monday as religious and political leaders gathered for a ceremony to honour the victims. Flight PW494, operated by Tanzanian airline Precision Air and carrying 43 people, hit the water in stormy weather as it tried to land at Bukoba airport early on Sunday morning, arriving from the capital Dar es Salaam. Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa told mourners gathered in a stadium that the weather had abruptly changed from good to…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Horrible and sad’ – COVID-19 boosts the death business

BUSINESS

JACK GRAHAM MOST startups are struggling to survive let alone thrive in the pandemic - yet 2020 couldn't have gone better for Untangle, a new player in the age-old death business. Launched in January as COVID-19 began circling the globe, Untangle was born from the grief of two women on a mission to help others cope better with death and the big, snap decisions it foists on mourners. “It’s really horrible and sad, but our market and the awareness of the need for the service has grown,” Untangle's co-founder Emily Cummin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Cummin came up with…