How kidnapped Tanzanian truck drivers were freed
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The freedom of the truck drivers was good news to their wives who spoke to this newspaper yesterday in Dar es Salaam, saying God was on their side.
The armed Mai-Mai rebels on Wednesday night kidnapped the eight truck drivers in the DRC, demanding a ransom of $4,000 for each of the captives, which would amount to $32,000 (around 70 million/-) in total, and set Friday as the deadline for payment.
The Congolese militants torched about a dozen trucks, most of them working for Dar es Salaam-based Simba Logistics Company, during a nighttime attack in the Namoyo area of South Kivu province, close to the DRC’s eastern border with Tanzania.
Mr Azim Dewji, owner of Simba Logistics Company, told this newspaper through Whatsapp from DRC where he flew to yesterday that DRC soldiers told him “to pretend continue negotiating with the rebels about the ransom to enable them (the soldiers) trace the location of the rebels”.
“The satellite phone enabled the DRC soldiers to locate the rebels and ambush them at Kilembe forest on Friday night,” said Dewji, adding that the rebels, who were about 40, abandoned their captives at 9pm Friday before they ran away.
“I did not give the rebels a single cent as part of the demanded ransom,” said Dewji when asked whether the ransom played a part on their release.
“The drivers were to undergo medical check-up at Kindu military hospital. They are all looking healthy,” added Dewji, who said that communication was difficult because there was a heavy downpour in the area.
Salma Nurdin Tindwa, wife of driver Hamdan Zafari Abdallah, said she was devastated when she got the news of the kidnapping of her husband.
“I was informed about the kidnapping on Wednesday at 8pm and my blood pressure suddenly went up. I started praying to God, asking Him to save my husband from the tragedy,” she said, adding that she only watched people being kidnapped on television but now it was happening to her husband.
“My fear worsened when I tried to phone him but he was not reachable,” she said.
The mother of two children aged 17 and 20 said her husband left for DRC on August 25 and she last spoke to him on Wednesday morning.
On hearing that her husband has been freed, she could not believe it until after she spoke to him yesterday morning.
“It was his real voice. He could not speak for long but he only told me that they were all safe but they were tired after a long walk in the bush,” she said.
The Kinyerezi resident said that her husband used a mobile phone with DRC numbers, she added.
However, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East Africa, Regional and International Cooperation, Ms Mindi Kasiga, told The Guardian via phone that one of the drivers was not in good condition.
She said most of them were in shock and they were being treated at a military hospital in DRC before arrangements for their journey back were made.
Kasiga said since most documents belonging to the drivers, including passports, were destroyed when their trucks were burnt, they will have to travel to the Rwandan capital Kigali to process new passports at Tanzania’s embassy.
“They cannot travel to our embassy in Kinshasa to get new passports because it is very far from the area they are to Kinshasa. It is easier to travel to Kigali than Kinshasa,” she said.
Kasiga added: “The process of getting medical attention and travelling to Kigali to get new travel documents will take two to three days before they arrive back home.”
Initial reports from DRC said on Thursday the rebels were also demanding the immediate withdrawal of Tanzanian peacekeepers who are part of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
Dewji said on Thursday he estimated the losses suffered by the company at around 1.6 billion/- as a result of the trucks being reduced to ashes and scrap metal.
The ambush took place between Kasebebena and Matete villages, some 30 kilometers from Namoya town in the DRC’s troubled South Kivu province.
Reports also have it that at least two Tanzanians escaped the attack and ran to safety as their colleagues were being led away into the forest by the rebels.
The other four trucks were owned by a Kenyan businessman whose identity could not be immediately determined.
Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA) identified the kidnapped drivers as Hamdan Harafi, Athuman Fadhili, Juma Zaulaya, Adam James, Issa Iddi Omary, Bakari Shomari, Hussein Mohamed Mwamu, and Mbwana Twaha.
In 2015, six Muslim clerics from Zanzibar were kidnapped in the DRC by Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.
The clerics from Zanzibar were travelling to remote areas of East and Central Africa to propagate Islam.
The name of the group involved in Wednesday’s attack, Mai-Mai or Mayi Mayi (Maji Maji), which translates to "Water Water," is a reference to a ritual whereby fighters are doused with "holy" water, making them invincible.
Mai-Mai fighters, who spray themselves with "magic water to protect themselves from bullets", are essentially self-defence militias formed on an ad-hoc basis by local leaders who arm young men in villages, often along ethnic lines.
