Five bodies recovered in Kenya at suspected site of cult deaths

NAIROBI (Reuters) -At least five bodies were recovered from shallow graves on Thursday at a site in Kenya where victims of a religious cult are suspected to have been buried, an official said.

Excavations were continuing at the site on the outskirts of Malindi in southeastern Kenya's Kilifi County, close to where hundreds of members of a doomsday cult were found dead two years ago.

The remains of five people were found in four graves at the site, Josephat Biwott, Kilifi County Commissioner told Reuters, adding they had excavated at 27 locations.

"The exercise is still ongoing," he said.

In July, Kenya's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it believed victims buried at the site may have been "starved and suffocated as a result of adopting and promoting extreme religious ideologies".

At least 11 suspects are being investigated in connection with the deaths, the prosecutors said.

People who live around the exhumation site had been unable to account for the whereabouts of several children, leading to suspicion of foul play and triggering investigations, according to the prosecutor's office.

More than 400 bodies were exhumed from the nearby Shakahola Forest in 2023 in one of the world's biggest cult-related disasters in recent history.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Ros Russell)

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