Hundreds of Tanzanians bid a tearful farewell to a young agriculture student who was killed in the Hamas-Israel conflict several thousand kilometres away, AFP reports.

Family members — wearing black shirts bearing Mtenga’s picture — broke down as they filed past the closed coffin at a ceremony in his home village of Kirwa in the Mount Kilimanjaro region.

Mtenga and another Tanzanian student, Joshua Mollel, 21, went to Israel in September for an agricultural internship programme but both went missing after the October 7 attack.

Tanzania’s foreign ministry confirmed his death in a statement last week, without elaborating on how he was killed, and said Mollel was still missing. Friends who studied with Mtenga before he moved to Israel described him as being “lovely and friendly”.

“It was sad and difficult to accept the news of his death because we used to communicate with him almost every evening,” said Anthony Kanyanza. “He was a leader of one of the class groups and we all enjoyed his company.”

A member of the local choir, Mtenga had been due to graduate from his university in Tanzania last week.