Clemence Mtenga tributes: Tanzanian student killed in Israel was a 'leader'

Clemence Felix MtengaMASHAV Israel

Clemence Felix Mtenga was studying agriculture in Israel at the time of the 7 October attack

By Alfred Lasteck in Morogoro and Aaron Akinyemi in London
BBC News

Clemence Mtenga should have graduated from university this week, instead his body is being flown home from Israel to his grieving family in Tanzania.

It remains unclear how he died but the 22-year-old agriculture student was killed following the 7 October attacks when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

His body is being repatriated to Dar es Salaam on Friday and then taken to his hometown in Rombo district near Kilimanjaro for the funeral.

His family told BBC News he would finally be laid to rest in a ceremony on Tuesday attended by family and friends.

Mr Mtenga had travelled to Israel as part of a study programme, arriving just one month before the attack.

This week he was awarded his degree from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.

One of his classmates attending the graduation ceremony, Cleopatra Mluge, told the BBC that Mr Mtenga "was like a leader because he was humble and always ready to assist and advise friends".

Another classmate, Irene Chaboma, remembered him as "a hard worker in class and one of the best performing students. May his soul rest in peace."

It is estimated that around 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas attack with gunmen taking about 240 hostages, among them several people from overseas.

Israel initially said that Mr Mtenga and fellow Tanzanian Joshua Loitu Mollel were among those hostages. However, Mr Mtenga is not one of the two hostages whose bodies have been recovered from Gaza, so it remains unclear where and how he died.

Israel has responded to the Hamas attacks with repeated air strikes on Gaza and launched a ground offensive. At least 13,300 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The two sides have since agreed a four day pause in fighting.

The two Tanzanians were living in Israel as part of an agricultural internship programme. They were expected to stay in the country for a further 11 months. Approximately 260 Tanzanians study agriculture in Israel.

Clemence Mtenga was due to have been among those graduating on Thursday

Revocatus Kimario, the head of Sugeco, which ran the university's internship programme said: "For us, Clemence is a hero because he went abroad to look for skills to transform and develop agriculture in his own country. We pray for his family."

Fellow student on the internship programme, Ezekiel Kitiku, has chosen to remain in Israel. He told the BBC that Mr Mtenga had been living at Kibbutz Nir Oz and had been due to work at a local dairy farm in the afternoon when it was attacked by Hamas gunmen.

Mr Kitiku paid tribute to his friend, remembering him as a fitness enthusiast.

"My friend was the one who liked to work out, so it was our daily routine in the evening to work out together," he told the BBC.

"We would go to the gym and we go on the bikes together. He was a very good friend to me."

"We spent so much time together," he added. "We cooked together and always spent our evenings together talking about our day. For him to leave suddenly is very painful."

The last time Mr Kitiku heard from Mr Mtenga was on the day of the attack before he lost mobile phone contact. He said his Christian faith is helping him, "and I believe I will meet him again one day".

Additional reporting from Eagan Salla in Morogoro.

More on Israel-Gaza war

Related topics

Around the BBC