Plane carrying Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and others missing

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 1 minute read

Top line

A plane carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others went missing on Monday, according to multiple reports, sparking concerns and leading to a search and rescue mission.

Highlights

A statement from Malawi's Secretary to the President and Cabinet said the plane “failed to land as planned at Mzuzu International Airport.”

Aviation authorities have been unable to make contact with the plane since it disappeared from radar, and Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera launched an immediate search and rescue operation.

The Malawi Defense Force plane left Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time (3:17 a.m. EDT) and was supposed to land at 10:02 a.m. (4:02 a.m. EDT), according to the statement.

The flight – which the BBC said was taking him to the funeral of a former cabinet member – also carried Chilima's wife and several officials from the United Transformation Movement, Chilima's political party, according to the report.

This story is developing and will be updated.

Key context

Malawi, a country in Southeast Africa, has been led by Chakewera and Chilima since 2020, although Chilima has been vice president since 2014. The United States has had diplomatic relations with Malawi since 1964, after its independence from United Kingdom, and relations improved after Malawi. became a multi-party democracy in 1994.

Tangent

Last month, corruption charges against Chilima were dropped by a Malawi court for no reason, the BBC reported. Chilima had been arrested in 2022 for allegedly accepting money in exchange for government contracts, although he denied the accusations.