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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Rodney Muhumuza

A macabre dispute has kept the body of Zambia's former president unburied for months

Zambia Funeral Dispute - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

More than eight months after his death, former Zambian President Edgar Lungu's remains are still in a South African funeral home, the subject of a macabre fight between his family and the longtime rival who succeeded him.

A graphic symbol of the dispute: an unfilled, coffin-size hole in a cemetery in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, where the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, had hoped Lungu would be buried in a state funeral. But Lungu, in his last days, told his family members that Hichilema, even as a mourner, should never go near his body.

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