Macabre dispute keeps body of Zambia's former President Edgar Lungu unburied for months

A bitter feud delays the burial of Zambia's former President Edgar Lungu, highlighting deep political and spiritual tensions.

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 Mr. Hichilema, even as a mourner, should never go near his body.

The matter has gone to the courts, which have repeatedly sided with Zambian authorities over Lungu's wishes. Lungu's family persists in seeking a burial that sidelines Mr. Hichilema.

So the body lies frozen in South Africa, where Lungu died, while Zambia endures a scandalous saga that offends traditional beliefs and raises many questions in a country where it is taboo to fail to bury the dead promptly and with dignity.

Behind the impasse is a long-running feud between two political rivals. It also reflects a spiritual contest between Mr. Hichilema, who is up for re-election in August, and Lungu, who is said to be fighting back from the dead, according to scholars and religious leaders who spoke to The Associated Press.

“It has shifted from the physical, it has shifted from politics, and it is now a spiritual battle,” said Bishop Anthony Kaluba of Life of Christ congregation in Lusaka.