Tanzanians detained over spying in Malawi consoled

The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East Africa Corporation, Mr Ramadhani Mwinyi, has visited eight Tanzanians held in Malawi for entering a uranium mining site without permission.

What you need to know:

  • A press statement issued by the ministry yesterday said, the victims were visited by Mr Mwinyi and other Tanzanian delegates attending the Joint Permanent Commission on Corporation (JPCC) meeting between the two countries.

Dar es Salaam. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East Africa Corporation, Mr Ramadhani Mwinyi, has visited eight Tanzanians held in Malawi for entering a uranium mining site without permission.

A press statement issued by the ministry yesterday said, the victims were visited by Mr Mwinyi and other Tanzanian delegates attending the Joint Permanent Commission on Corporation (JPCC) meeting between the two countries.

All of them are detained at Mzuzu Prison since the end of last year.

The deputy PS appealed for calm from relatives of the detainees as the government was working ‘tirelessly’ to resolve the matter.

“We have travelled for over 400 kilometres from Lilongwe to Mzuzu to show that we are keen on seeing a solution to this issue is found. I am just appealing for your calm because we are optimistic the issue will be resolved very soon,” he told the detainees.

Mr Mwinyi said talks on how to resolve the issue were ongoing at different levels between the two countries.

According to him, during the just concluded African Union summit President John Magufuli and his Malawian counterpart Prof Peter Mutharika held talks on various issues, one of them being the Tanzanian detainees.

The Tanzanians, who went to Malawi under the sponsorship of a religious organisation known as Caritas Tanzania, were seized and locked up after they were accused of spying the neighbouring country’s uranium mining sites.

Reports of their arrests were first published on December 22 in the Malawian media. They are accused of spying if Malawi “is developing nuclear weapons from uranium at Kayerekera mining site in Karonga District.”