Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs spokesperson Petrus Shilumbu has confirmed that a contingent of Zambian soldiers has arrived in the country to assist the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) with president Hage Geingob’s burial.
Shilumbu acknowledged that the NDF has its own guidelines on how to bury the president, however, they lack experience.
“We have never before experienced the death of either a sitting or former president. It is for the first time we are experiencing the death of the president, while our Zambian counterparts experienced the death of two sitting presidents and three former presidents,” he said.
“It is a normal practice when it comes to military-to-military relations for the armed forces of friendly countries to exchange and share experiences in times of need, such as this one, where we have lost our commander-in-chief,” Shilumbu said.
Additionally, he added that the Zambian Defence Force assisted Malawi in 1997 during the bereavement of president Hastings Banda.
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