Thousands of mourners in Uganda paid respects to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire, at a military funeral in a remote town near the Kenyan border.

Military officers played a prominent role in the funeral because Cheptegei held the rank of sergeant in Uganda’s army, said military spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye, adding that she deserved a “gun salute that befits her rank.”

Athletes, family members and others delivered their eulogies before thousands in a sports field in the district of Bukwo.

Cheptegei, who was 33, will be buried later on Saturday.

The man accused of setting her on fire died in a Kenyan hospital of his own burns sustained during the incident. Dickson Ndiema died at the Moi Teaching Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, where Cheptegei also died several days after suffering burns in the dispute with her former boyfriend, which was allegedly over land.

Neighbors reported hearing voices before seeing Ndiema pour gasoline over Cheptegei as she returned from church with her two daughters on Aug. 31.  He, too, was seriously injured in the attack and succumbed in the hospital’s intensive care unit to complications from the burns, a hospital official said Tuesday.

“He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that led to his eventual death,” Philip Kirwa, the hospital’s CEO, said in a statement.

Cheptegei suffered burns to more than 80% of her body and died on Sept. 5 of multiple organ failure. Police confirmed they were still investigating the incident.

The horrific gasoline attack shocked many and strengthened calls for the protection of female runners facing exploitation and abuse in the East African country.

Cheptegei’s body was returned to Uganda Friday in a somber procession following a street march by dozens of activists in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret who demanded an end to physical violence against female athletes.

Cheptegei is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in a worrying pattern of gender-based violence in recent years. Kenya’s high rates of violence against women have prompted several marches this year.

Ugandan officials have condemned the attack, demanding justice for Cheptegei. First lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as Uganda’s education and sports minister, described the attack as “deeply disturbing.”

Don Rukare, chairman of the National Council of Sports of Uganda, said in a statement on X that the attack was “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.”

A 2023 report by Kenya’s Bureau of National Statistics found that 34% of women had experienced physical violence after reaching the age of 15, with women who were or had been married almost twice as likely to report such violence.

Many Ugandan athletes train across the border in Kenya, an athletics powerhouse with better facilities. Some of the region’s best runners train together at a high-altitude center in Kenya’s west.

The city of Paris said it wants to honor Cheptegei, whose death was less than a month after she competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics and finished 44th.

On Friday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo proposed the city name a sports venue after her. The proposal will be discussed by elected city officials in October.

Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.

“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted Friday on DePrince’s social media accounts. “From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”

A cause of death was not provided.

DePrince was adopted by an American couple. By age 17, she had been featured in a documentary film and had performed on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars.”

After graduating from high school and the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she became a principal dancer Dance Theatre of Harlem. She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the Dutch National Ballet. She later returned to the U.S. and joined the Boston Ballet in 2021.

“We’re sending our love and support to the family of Michaela Mabinty DePrince at this time of loss,” the Boston Ballet said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were so fortunate to know her; she was a beautiful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be greatly missed by us all.”

In her memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children’s book, Ballerina Dreams.

DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that had her labeled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.

“I lost both my parents, so I was there (the orphanage) for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in a 2012 interview. “We were ranked as numbers and number 27 was the least favorite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and whatnot.”

She told added that she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during Sierra Leone’s civil war.

“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she wished “to become this exact person.”

She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I ripped the page out and I stuck it in my underwear because I didn’t have any place to put it,” she said.

Her passion helped inspire young Black dancers to pursue their dreams, her family said.

“We will miss her and her gorgeous smile forever and we know you will, too,” their statement said.

Her sister Mia Mabinty DePrince recalled in the statement that they slept on a shared mat in the orphanage and used to make up their own musical theater plays and ballets.

“When we got adopted, our parents quickly poured into our dreams and arose the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that so many of you knew her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was leaping across the stage or getting on a plane and flying to third-world countries to provide orphans and children with dance classes, she was determined to conquer all her dreams in the arts and dance.”

She is survived by five sisters and two brothers. The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to War Child, which is an organization that DePrince was involved with as a War Child Ambassador.

“This work meant the world to her, and your donations will directly help other children who grew up in an environment of armed conflict,” the family statement said.