Cuba declares 9 days of national mourning for Fidel Castro

The Cuban government has declared 9 days of national mourning for the country’s former revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro who died on Friday at the age of 90.

Raul Castro announced on state television that his brother Fidel died at 10:29pm (03:29GMT) local time.

“Dear Cuban people, it’s with profound sadness that I must share this with our people … that today, November 25 … the commander and chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died,” he said.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions both in Cuba and abroad with Cuban Americans in particular taking to the streets in celebration.

Castro’s remains which have been cremated in accordance with his wishes, will be interred next week in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba which was key to his early life and revolution.

Castro’s ashes will make a cross-country tour starting Wednesday from Havana to Santiago, retracting in reverse, the route Castro took when the revolution triumphed in 1959.

The ashes will finally be interred in a Santiago cemetery on December 4.

As part of the national mourning, public activities and events will be cancelled and the Cuban flag is to be flown at half mast.

State media say Cubans throughout the country will be invited to pay homage to Castro on November 28 and 29 at the Jose Marti Memorial by “signing a solemn oath of complying with the concept of the revolution”.

There will also be mass gathering in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution where Castro often addressed huge crowds.