The number of alleged Christian sect members who fasted to death in the southern Kenyan forest to meet Jesus Christ has risen to 211 after being exhumed today by the authorities ten new corpsessaid the Police.

Kenya Coast Regional Police Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told reporters that three people were rescued although their condition was serious, bringing the death toll to 84.

four new suspects were arrested, bringing their total to 31. The Commissioner also reported that the number of missing people still stands at 610.

Almost all who died from the call “Shakahol massacre“, the name of the forest in which the tragedy occurred, were exhumed from the graves and mass graves found in that forest, with the exception of a few who died in the hospital due to a serious condition.

Autopsies of over a hundred bodies showed that while all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three juveniles and one adult also showed signs of strangulation and asphyxiation.

Similarly, early police investigations show that believers were forced keep fasting even if they want to stop it.

Last Wednesday, the Shanzu Court in the coastal city of Mombasa ruled to extend the thirty days (beginning May 3) the arrest of the leader of the cult who allegedly encouraged the victims to fast, Pastor Paul Mackenzie Ntenge, along with his wife and 16 other suspects.

On 2 May, Ntenge and other detainees were released by a court in the tourist coastal town of Malindi after prosecutors announced their intention to charge them with terrorism, for which the court found itself incompetent.