For two years, his body lay in the Gokwe District Hospital mortuary in north-west Zimbabwe.

BBC: African viewpoint: Zimbabwe's ghosts and intrigues

The figures are based on hospital and mortuary records and are seen as significant given the heated and highly politicised debate over the human cost of the war in Iraq, our correspondent says.

BBC: Blast carnage at shrine in Iraq

At Beatrice hospital in Harare, bodies were piled in the mortuary, awaiting relatives to collect them.

CNN: Zimbabwe cholera death toll nears 500