DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Advocates are raising money to pay for the burial of a 36-year-old Congolese refugee who died of the coronavirus earlier this month in Des Moines.Embarc Iowa, a refugee services organization, said that Wiuca Iddi Wiuca died May 4 after a sudden illness and two weeks in the hospital.The group says advocates need to raise thousands of dollars to have Wiuca buried this week at an Ankeny cemetery, adding that a traditional burial in the Congolese community is extremely important.

Wiuca leaves behind two adult siblings who, like him, were resettled to Des Moines last year from a refugee camp in Tanzania. They had fled war in Congo in 1996.