Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima has died along with nine other people in a plane crash, confirms the country's President Lazarus Chakwera.
A plane has been found and I am deeply saddened and regret to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy, says Chakwera in a televised address.
The military plane vanished from radar after taking off from Malawi's capital Lilongwe en route to the northern parts of the country on Monday morning. The plane is said to have disappeared after turning back towards Lilongwe as it could not land in Mzuzu due to bad weather. It crashed in a forest.
The 51-year-old Saulos Chilima was Malawi's Vice President for ten years, under two different presidents, both before and after a disputed election in 2019 that was annulled due to fraud.
Chilima broke with the country's former President Peter Mutharika and formed his own party, campaigning against corruption, which gave him a leading position even when Lazarus Chakwera was later elected President. Later, he was himself arrested on bribery allegations, which he denied and was never convicted of. The formal investigation into the Vice President was dropped without explanation a month ago.
Malawi is located in southeastern Africa and borders Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. The country has around 20 million inhabitants.
