Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

The body of 33-year-old Tanzanian Nemes Tarimo, who was killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine, is returning home for burial.

Tanzania says Tarimo agreed to fight for the Wagner Group in exchange for being released from a Russian prison, the second African known to have died that way.

Minister Tax said it was strictly forbidden by the Constitution for Tanzanians, especially those living in the diaspora, to work or be engaged as a mercenary and fight for foreign armies.

“It is to be recalled that Tanzanian citizens are not allowed to join any army or fighting groups in other countries except for the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF),” she told a well-attended press conference.

Much as she expressed her grief and extended the government’s condolences to the bereaved family, relatives, friends and all Tanzanians, Dr Tax said that the fate that had befallen on a youthful Tanzanian should have been avoided, if he had observed the country’s laws as well as the laws of the country that he was living in.

"Nemes informed me and some other family members about joining Wagner, and we advised him not to," the family member, who did not want to give their name, tells the BBC.

But for the young man, who relatives describe as polite, God-fearing and supportive, there was an offer that was hard to resist.

The family says that Tarimo, who had ambitions to be an MP with the opposition Chadema party, had been in Moscow as an ICT master's student at the Russian Technological University. But he was then imprisoned some time after January 2021 for what were described as drugs-related offences.