In Summary
There is now an empty void in my life. It’s a big loss. My father worked so hard for all of us. He loved us and always told us to study hard
Iringa/ Dar es Salaam. The daughter of one of
the seven Tanzanian soldiers killed in Darfur, Sudan, Corporal Oswald
Chaula, learnt of the death of her father after seeing people gathered
at her home when she came back from school.
Eliza Oswald, 14, a Form One student at Cagliero
Secondary School in Iringa said goodbye to her father a few months ago
when he left for a peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Speaking to The Citizen yesterday in Iringa, Eliza said the day the information
reached her family, her one of her aunts went to her school. “I saw my
aunt heading to the administration block. I was later called to greet
her and she said I was supposed to visit my grandmother at home,” said
Eliza adding that: “Upon reaching home I saw many people outside our
house and it was then that I was told that my father was dead.”
She said the sudden death had devastated her, but added that she was ready to face the challenges ahead.
“There is now an empty void in my life. It’s a big
loss. My father worked so hard for all of us. He loved us and always
told us to study hard,” Eliza said.
Mr Linus Chaula, a younger brother of the fallen
soldier, asked the government the United Nations to provide Tanzanian
peacekeepers in various parts of the world with more powerful weapons.
He said it was painful to hear peacekeepers being killed by well-armed
rebels.
Mr Chaula also asked the government to release the
timetable of activities that would follow the arrival of the soldiers’
bodies.
The bodies are expected to arrive at Terminal One
of Julius Nyerere International Airport at 10am tomorrow, the Tanzania
People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) said in a statement yesterday.
The bodies will be flown from Khartoum in a
special jet, and will be taken to the Lugalo Military Hospital mortuary
ahead of an send-off official ceremony.
UN-Africa Mission in Darfur (Unamid) spokesperson
Chris Cycmanick told The Citizen in a telephone interview yesterday that
postmortem examinations had been carried out on all seven bodies.
He also said that those wounded in the incident described as the deadliest ever single attack on the international force in Sudan were responding well to treatment.
“They remain in serious but stable condition...we hope they will be recovering soon,” he said.
Source : The Citizen
Source : The Citizen
