Malawi announces state funeral and 21 days of mourning for Vice President

Vice President Saulos Chilima of Malawi will be accorded a state funeral following his death in an aircraft crash alongside eight other individuals, the administration announced on Wednesday.

Following the discovery of the wreckage of the small military jet transporting Chilima and a former first lady in a hilly region of the country’s north on Tuesday, President Lazarus Chakwera declared 21 days of national mourning.

Chilima, 51, had held the position of vice president since 2014 after serving a first term under the previous president, Peter Mutharika.

The government now said that nine individuals were on board the aircraft, but Chakwera first claimed that ten people were.

The president stated that when the twin-propeller aircraft crashed in a steep, wooded location during severe weather, everyone perished instantly.

Among the victims was the ex-wife of former Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri. There were three members of the military crew and six passengers on board.

The aircraft vanished on Monday morning while it was on a brief journey from the capital, Lilongwe, to the northern city of Mzuzu for a former government minister’s burial.

According to the president, the aircraft was instructed by air traffic controllers to return to Lilongwe instead of landing in Mzuzu due to inclement weather and low visibility.

After that, the plane vanished off radar and air traffic controllers were unable to communicate with it.

It took over twenty-four hours for hundreds of military personnel, law enforcement officials, and forest rangers to find the wreckage in a forest plantation to the south of Mzuzu.

On Tuesday night, a chopper from the Zambian Air Force returned the victims’ corpses to Lilongwe.

Source: AP