Douala - Just a week after Easter, 40 dead and long buried men started rising and moving to new graves in Douala.

But theirs was not the Easter resurrection.

The city council was championing this resurrection that unlike the case of Jesus Christ ended in another reburial.

Some 40 corpses in the Ndopassi graveyard that lie in the way of a new road being constructed from BP. Cite to Ndokoti were being exhumed and transferred to Malangue to let the new road pass.

This is in line with the facelift that the economic capital is being given.

Since last year, other roads have been enlarged, parks built and whole neighbourhoods razed down.

“It is a delicate operation,” said Fritz Ntone Ntone, city council delegate.

“But all necessary measures have been taken for human dignity to be respected.

“We are doing this to rehabilitate the road and make the city more open,” he added

Some of the targeted graves are only a meter from the road and have been a serious problem to road users.

As expected, resistance is not coming from the dead men. It is family members that are cursing.

“We were informed about the transfer of our dead ones but the council did not inform us about the execution date,” said one man.

“We would want to supervise the handling of the corpses.”

Some people even asked for compensation.

“We should be paid for the disturbance that the council is giving our dead loved ones.” a lady

The fearless Ndoumbe, the chief mortician at the Douala Laquintinie hospital is heading the team that is digging up the dead men and reburying them.

His only comment so far is that the operation is exciting.