By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The quiet Isiekwulu village in Ukpo community, Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State, was thrown into grief over the weekend, as a widow and her five children, who lost their lives in a tragic fire incident in Burkina Faso, were laid to rest amid tears, anguish, and disbelief.
Happening exactly two years after the death of the breadwinner and father of the house, the burial ceremony, which held on Friday, consequently marked the end of the family already devastated by loss. Sympathizers, relatives, and well-wishers from within and outside the state thronged the community to witness what many described as one of the most painful funerals the area had seen in recent times.
According to reports, the deceased, Mrs. Uchenna Ngozichukwu Akubue (aged 47) and her five children: Justin Onyinyechukwu (aged 18), Chinenye Joan (aged 16), Chiemerie Victory (aged 16); Victor-Mary Chidike (aged 9), and Chidimma Epiphania (aged 6), died on December 23, 2025, after a candlelight ignited a fire that consumed their residence in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where the family had lived for years.
The ceremony commenced with a solemn burial service held at St. Simon Catholic Parish, Akaezi-Ukpo, for the repose of their souls, after which they proceeded to the family compound in Isiekwulu village where their remains were interred, in an atmosphere charged with sorrow, considering the family’s painful history.
The husband of the deceased woman, Mr. Innocent Chinedu Akubue, it was gathered, had died just two years earlier in the same Burkina Faso after a brief illness. He was said to be about 50 years old at the time of his death, leaving behind his wife and five young children in the foreign land.
Few years before his death, Innocent was said to have had built a modern one-storey building in his hometown of Isiekwulu village, hoping to provide comfort for his family whenever they returned home from abroad for Christmas celebration. However, sadly, he did not live long enough to enjoy the home, and even more devastatingly, neither did his wife nor children.
With the burial of the widow and her children, the house now stands as the only physical reminder of a family completely wiped out by fate.
Narrating the family’s painful journey, a cousin of the late Innocent, Elder Paul Uche Akubue, described the incident as a devastating blow that defied explanation. He revealed that Innocent was the last surviving child of his parents, having lost his three siblings earlier in life, while their parents had also died years before.
According to him, Innocent initially left Ukpo for Lagos, where he established himself in the motor spare parts business, before later relocating to Burkina Faso. He was described as a devout Catholic who got married in Burkina Faso to Uchenna, also an indigene of Ukpo, and together they raised all five of their children in the West African country.
The cousin further disclosed that the tragedy almost ended in a mass burial abroad, as the Burkina Faso government offered and proposed to bury the six victims there. However, Igbo indigenes resident in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo reportedly rejected the plan and insisted that the bodies must be returned home.
Through collective effort and sacrifice, the Igbo community in those countries reportedly raised a total of ₦33.8 million to repatriate the remains to Nigeria for burial. Elder Paul described their support as overwhelming, noting that without their intervention, the family would have been denied the dignity of a home burial.
Despite the crushing loss, he expressed faith in God, stating that the tragedy, painful as it is, would not weaken his belief. He also noted that while human understanding fails in moments like this, he has chosen to accept the situation as part of divine mystery beyond human control.
When asked how it happened, Elder Paul recounted how he first received a distress call from Burkina Faso on December 23rd on the day of the incident, informing him that his cousin’s house had been engulfed in flames. According to him, later that same day, he received confirmation that the widow and all five children had perished in the inferno, a development that plunged the entire family into shock and grief.
On her own side, the late woman’s younger sister, Mrs. Onyinyechukwu Nwafor, was visibly broken during the burial. Struggling to speak, she lamented that her elder sister and all her children were gone, leaving behind an empty home now occupied only by a security guard and caretaker.
