The Chairperson of the Council of Traditional Leaders, Immanuel |Gaseb has highlighted that for the families of Nehale and Niilenge, this is a homecoming marked by both relief and grief.

The Gaob witnessed the exhumation of Festus Nehale and Simon Niilenge and spoke at the re-humanization and repatriation ceremony on behalf of all traditional leaders.

|Gaseb narrated that Nehale was a member of the Ondonga royal family and the grandson of King Nehale lyaMpingana.

He said Nehale followed a path of resistance that had also defined his grandfather's struggle against colonial forces, joining Peoples Liberation Army of Namibia in the fight for the country's independence.

“What pains my heart and of their relatives is that we are only taking home the bones of Comrade Festus Nehale and Comrade Simon Petrus Niilenge."

For |Gaseb, the participation of traditional leadership ensured that the two fighters were not treated merely as historical figures but as sons, relatives, and members of communities whose lives were cut short.

Former prisoner at Robben Island, former Ambassador Martin Kapewasha, also shared his sentiments at the ceremony.

Kapewasha said the repatriation of the remains closes a painful chapter in the country's liberation history.

He credited the governments of Namibia and South Africa for bringing the process to its conclusion.

Niilenge was captured at Ongulumbashe, where the liberation movement had established one of its first military bases.

The base was attacked by apartheid South African forces in 1966.

Kapewasha said Nehale was part of a second group of combatants sent from Tanzania to join the fighters already operating from Ongulumbashe.

“The bodies of our two comrades are lying in front of us here, and at the same time we are also repatriating these bodies or skeletons back home so that our two comrades could get a dignified burial and join their countrymen and women who sacrificed their lives for the bitter and long liberation struggle that led to the independence of Namibia."