The Zimbabwe government on Thursday said that former president Robert Mugabe will be buried at his home village in Zvimba as requested by his family.

A statement by government spokesman Nick Mangwana said the government was cooperating with the late Mugabe’s family in the new position.

The family of Mugabe, who died in Singapore early this month, and Zimbabwe’s government have been at odds over whether he would be buried in his homestead in Kutama, northwest of Harare, or at the National Heroes Acre in the capital.

Mugabe’s nephew, Leo, had previously told AFP that the family had decided that his body will lie in state at Kutama after which there would be a private burial but not at National Heroes Acre.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa had declared Mugabe a national hero after his death, indicating he should be buried at the national monument.

Zimbabweans have been split over the death of a leader once hailed for ending the former British colony Rhodesia of white-minority rule but who later purged his foes in a brutal crackdown.