23″ January “2023” BBC
The body of Nemes Tarimo, a Tanzanian who died while fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine is still stranded in Russia, a family member says.
They were expecting the body to arrive on 10 January and had already made burial arrangements at the family’s rural home.
“One of our family members is contacting the Tanzanian embassy in Russia on the procedures. All the [burial] arrangements are ready but the body is stranded and we don’t know why,” a family member said.
A mourner who had repeatedly visited the home for the return of the body said the long wait was hurting even more.
“It’s not good and this family is going through a lot. All I feel is that the body should be sent as soon as possible to reduce inconveniences,” he said.
A family spokesperson said mourners will be given a chance to pay their last respects to the deceased in Dar es Salaam before the body is moved to their rural village in Southern Highlands region for burial.
Tanzanian killed in Ukraine: We told him not to go
Nemes Tarimo’s family in Tanzania warned him against agreeing to fight with Russian forces in Ukraine, but the 33-year-old had a big incentive to sign up.
It is now three weeks since his relatives learnt of the news that confirmed their wor犀利士 st fears. He had died in combat.
Everyone at the family home in the city of Dar es Salaam looks exhausted as they wait for news about when his body might come back.
The waiting is taking its toll.
There are about 15 people in the compound, and relatives are coming in and out all day wanting to hear if there are any updates.
One says they last heard from him in October when he had said he had agreed to sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
“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.
Last year, he was enticed with a deal: sign up and be pardoned or stay in prison.
