Twenty-seven civilians killed in August’s unrest in Sierra Leone were buried in the capital Freetown on Monday after a state-led ceremony, as families have questioned police claims about their deaths.

After a ceremony in the morgue of Connaught Hospital, coffins were lowered into individual graves in Bolima Cemetery in Freetown’s Waterloo area.

“We are saddened and devastated by what happened to my brother,” said Alusine Koroma, who is covering the official account of the death of Hassan Dumbuya, a social media influencer and prominent member of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party. challenges

On August 10, a protest against the cost of living led to deadly clashes between security forces and young men demanding the resignation of President Julius Bio.

Violence erupted in several parts of the West African nation, prompting authorities to declare an internet blackout.

In the days that followed, the police carried out raids on “hideouts for perpetrators”.

During one of those raids in the town of Makeni, Dumbuya – aka Evangelist Samson – was killed in the crossfire, police said in a statement. His family denies it, and the APC has called for an independent investigation.

“According to the autopsy report we received from the coroner, he was shot from behind in Makeni,” Koroma said tearfully on Monday.

The family refused the 20,000 leones (US$1,200) that the government had offered each family to help with the funeral rites.

Koroma said they requested a family funeral and were denied.

Information and Communications Minister Mohamed Rahman Swaray said the state had “reached an agreement” with families that he would officiate the ceremony on national security grounds.

Safety is “the only reason” the state was involved, he told AFP, attributing the long delay to the need to reach consensus with families.

He also referred to the need for loved ones to identify bodies and be present at “examinations.”

“Some (of the violence) happened in different parts of the country; we had to release public service announcements and family members — some of them were scared at first,” he said. “We had to extend one deadline after the other.”

Civilians were killed in the cities of Makeni in Northern Province and Kamakwie in Northwest Province, as well as east Freetown.

Swaray said nine bodies have still not been identified.

He said families initially feared the dead would be buried in mass graves.

But the government said in a statement on Sunday that each body would be buried in its own grave “after a dignified ceremony” at the direction of the president.

“This is a sad day and a loss for our nation,” Home Secretary David Maurice Panda-Noah told mourners after Muslim and Christian prayers in the mortuary.

On August 24, six police officers killed in the riots were buried at a state funeral attended by Bio.

Sierra Leone, a country of around eight million people, has enjoyed a reputation for relative stability since the end of the 1991-2002 civil war that claimed the lives of around 120,000 people.

But the economy, heavily dependent on minerals, is struggling to recover.