Tanzania calls Kagera war victims to register for free medical services

DODOMA: THE government has advised all elders who succumbed to different kinds of disabilities during the Kagera war but not included in a list of beneficiaries receiving free medical services and disability to submit their personal information.

So far, according to the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Jumanne Sagini, available statistics indicate that about 272 elders with disabilities are in the list.

The Deputy Minister offered the instruction in Dodoma on Thursday when reacting to a question by Special Seats Member of Parliament (MP), Fakharia Shomari (CCM), who had demanded the government’s stance over the fate of elders who had suffered during the battle between Tanzania and Uganda in 1979.

In response, Mr Sagini who acted on behalf of the Minister for Defence

and National Service, noted that until Thursday, 272 elders with

disabilities were on the pay-list, insisting that immediately after the

During the Kagera War, the government started taking care of all persons who fought during the war.

“Many of those fighters were recruited and later permanently employed in different defence and security organs especially the Tanzania Peoples’ Defence Forces, Tanzania Police Force and the Tanzania Prisons Service,” said the Deputy Minister, adding that others however, were not employed due to different reasons.

The Uganda–Tanzania War, known in Tanzania as the Kagera War and in

Uganda as the 1979 Liberation War, was fought between Uganda and Tanzania from October 1978 until June 1979, culminating into the overthrow of Idi Amin’s regime.