By Umaru Sanda Amadu

ACCRA, Ghana

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has ordered hospitals in capital Accra to conduct DNA tests on hundreds of bodies in hopes of identifying victims of last week’s fire disaster.

“The government has given authorization for DNA tests to be conducted on the bodies from the disaster that have not yet been identified,” Mahama said at a memorial service that followed a three-day period of national mourning.

The tests, he said, would allow families who cannot account for their relatives to bring DNA samples for cross-checking with bodies recovered in the wake of the disaster.

“With official confirmation [of identity], claims can be quickly granted for the return of their loved ones’ remains,” said Mahama. “In due course, each of the names [of the deceased] will be released to the public to ensure that these individuals will be remembered eternally. We are still in the process of identifying the dead.”

The president said that 152 people had been killed last week as a result of the torrential rains that hit Accra and a subsequent fire that broke out at a gas station.

The national memorial service was also attended by both of Ghana’s surviving former presidents – John Rawlings and John Kufuor – along with current Vice-President Amissah Arthur, the speaker and members of parliament, several ministers of state and opposition leader Nana Akufo Addo.

Relatives of those killed in last week’s disaster who attended Wednesday’s memorial – some of whom were dressed in black and red, signifying grief in Ghanaian society – wailed and shed tears.

The government, for its part, said it would pay all hospital expenses for victims of the disaster.

Local authorities, meanwhile, have begun demolishing structures built in waterways, a practice believed to have caused last week’s spate of deadly flooding.