BAMAKO, Mali - Wind-blown red dust coated onlookers at a Muslim cemetery in Mali's capital Sunday as a group of men filled the graves of Mariam Fatoumata Soumare and her four children killed when fire engulfed their crowded New York City home.
Following tradition, the men massed in the front of the bowing crowd, while women prayed in the back. Young boys covered their faces to protect their eyes from the gritty air as the men used shovels and their hands to scoop up the dry soil.
"All deaths are certainly painful, but that which brings us together today prompts even more reflection, and submission to God," said Boubacar Soumare, a cousin of the father who spoke at the funeral on behalf of the family.
Fatoumata Soumare and her four children were among 10 people of Malian descent killed when a fire tore through their shared row house in New York's Bronx neighborhood on March 7.
Earlier, about 700 people, including Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, the country's prime minister and a U.S. government delegation, prayed under tents near the Soumare family home before continuing to the cemetery.
The father of the family, a cab driver who does not have U.S. citizenship, returned to Mali to bury his family having been granted special permission to return to the U.S. afterward. Mamadou Soumare was embraced by members of his extended family when he arrived Saturday evening with the coffins.
The remains of Fatoumata Soumare, her 7-year-old daughter Hassimy, 4-year-old son Djibril and 7-month-old twins Harouna and Sise, arrived in Bamako via Air France, which paid for the transport of the coffins.
The family was killed when a space heater set their house ablaze. Nine of the victims were children, including the five children of a fellow Malian immigrant who shared the house.
When the fire erupted, father Mamadou, 48, was driving his livery cab. His wife called him on his cell phone as the fire raged, pleading for help.
Relatives spoke of the importance of returning the bodies to their homeland, even if none of the children had spent time in Mali.
"It's hard for us. But we thank God for having made it possible for their bodies to return to the land of their ancestors," said Sekou Soumare, the uncle of the dead mother.
Long before the fire, Fatoumata Soumare, 42, had expressed her wish to be buried alongside her father in a Bamako cemetery, said Michael Wildes, a New York-based attorney for the family. AP
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