At least five bodies have been recovered from shallow graves at a site in Kenya’s Kilifi County, where victims of a religious cult are suspected to have been buried.
The excavations, which are ongoing, have uncovered four graves containing the remains of five people out of 27 locations dug up so far.
The site is located near where hundreds of members of a doomsday cult were found dead two years ago in the Shakahola Forest, a tragic incident that remains one of the world’s biggest cult-related disasters in recent history.
The Kenyan authorities believe the victims may have been starved and suffocated due to extreme religious ideologies, with 11 suspects currently under investigation in connection with the deaths.
The incident is reminiscent of the Shakahola Forest massacre, where cult leader Paul Mackenzie instructed his followers to starve themselves to death to “meet Jesus,” leading to the deaths of hundreds of people.
The Kenyan government has since declared Mackenzie’s cult an organized criminal group and is working to bring those responsible to justice.