In cyclone-hit Mozambique, a quest to find and name the dead
MAGARU, Mozambique -- He was haunted by the thought of a small child's skull, unburied and lost in the debris of a cyclone that had claimed hundreds of lives.
The storm tore apart frightened families and swept whole villages away, with floodwaters as high as treetops rushing toward the sea. Parents lost their grip on children. Exhausted people clinging to branches for days fell into the waters and drowned. "This is our one good opportunity to get as much as possible," said Fonseca, the South Africa-based forensic coordinator for Africa with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"They take the time because one day our time will come as well," Fonseca said. He found the community burials comforting, with people even pausing from handing out badly needed humanitarian aid to take turns digging. Fonseca offered to do exhumations and reburials but only with permission. One family that had tracked down and buried two relatives near a termite mound, a natural marker, decided to let them be. In their culture a person should not be dug up and moved, they said.
Without a mandate from Mozambique's government to issue death certificates or compile official figures, Fonseca instead gave community leaders guidance on handling the dead. He distributed wooden grave markers, body tags, gloves.
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