Family ‘did not know killer was in Tanzania’

ITV journalist Ufoo Saro is wheeled out of the operating room at Muhimbili National Hospital yesterday.  Ms Saro was shot and seriously wounded by her fiance, who also shot the reporter’s mother dead before taking his own life.  PHOTO | EMMANUEL HERMAN 

By  The Citizen Team

Posted  Tuesday, October 15  2013 at  00:00

In Summary

• He left ICTR and joined the UN in Sudan where he was working as a telecommunications officer.

Dar es Salaam. The family of Antel Mushi was not aware he was in the country until he shot dead his fiancee’s mother before taking his own life on Sunday, according to a close relative.

Mushi, who was working with the UN in Sudan, also shot and seriously wounded Ms Ufoo Saro at her home in Kibamba, Dar es Salaam.

His elder brother, Mr Silver Mushi, said yesterday that a friend called him on the fateful day at around 9am, and asked him whether Antel had come home from Sudan after he heard on the radio and television that he (Antel) had shot and killed Ms Anastazia Saro, 58, and seriously wounded his fiancee, who is a reporter with ITV, before turning the gun on himself.

Mr Mushi said he last spoke to Antel on October 9, this year, when the latter was travelling on official duty within Sudan.

“He told me to pray for him...we did not speak again until I was called by a friend who alerted me about the radio and television reports,” he said.

Mr Mushi said Antel, 40, was a down-to-earth person “who had more friends than enemies”.

He added that he could not have even remotely imagined that his younger brother could do what he did on Sunday.

Mr Moshi said he last saw Antel in July when he came to Tanzania on leave, and recalled that Ms Saro saw her fiance off at Kilimanjaro International when he left for Sudan.

Antel received primary education in Moshi before he went to Zanzibar for his secondary education. He joined ITV in 1994 before joining the then Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

He left ICTR and joined the UN in Sudan where he was working as a telecommunications officer.

“He liked studying a lot and was at the time of his death undertaking distance learning through a university in India, and was due to graduate in December,” Mr Mushi said.

Antel lived with Ms Saro for about 13 years and the couple had a child.

Ms Saro was recuperating yesterday at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), where she underwent an operation on Sunday after she was shot in the abdomen and leg.

Doctors said she needed complete rest for at least three days.

Detectives went to MNH yesterday morning, but doctors did not allow them to question her.

Ms Saro told a few reporters who managed to talk to her that she was doing well and even shook hands with some of them.

ITV and Radio One Director Joyce Mhaville told reporters that Ms Saro’s condition was much better compared to when she was brought to hospital.

Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander Suleiman Kova said he would today issue a report on preliminary investigations into Sunday’s incident

Ms Saro’s mother will be buried tomorrow in Machame, Kilamnjaro Region, according to the family spokesperson, Mr Idd Lema.

Reported by Alex Bitekeye, Henry Mwangonde, Katare Mbashiru and Fariji Msonsa.

SOURCE: THE CITIZEN