According to Lazarus Chakwera, he has ordered that the MDF aircraft carrying Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima and nine other people be searched and rescued throughout the night.
According to Lazarus Chakwera, the administration has made requests for assistance from neighboring nations and development partners, including the United States, Britain, Norway, and Israel.
Additionally, he has instructed the Malawi Defence Force to provide frequent updates on the situation.
According to government sources in Malawi, there is currently very little prospect of discovering anyone still alive inside the missing military aircraft that was transporting Dr. Saulos Chilima, the vice president of Malawi.
Additionally, it has been verified that Mary, the vice president’s wife, was not on the airplane, unlike what several media sites had earlier claimed.
The Vice President had come back from overseas to attend Ralph Kasambala, a well-known lawyer from Malawi,’s burial in Mzuzu.
To ensure he returned to Lilongwe in time to see off President Lazarus Chakwera, who had postponed his trip to the Bahamas due to the aviation disaster, he chose to take a plane rather than drive to the burial.
In Malawi, it is customary for the Vice President and the government to bid farewell to the President on his travels.
Former Malawian President Dr. Bakili Muluzi’s ex-wife was also traveling with the vice president.
Military sources are lamenting the lack of equipment and level of unpreparedness for such a crucial search and rescue operation.
The word that the plane had vanished in the morning was finally issued this evening via the State House in Lilongwe.
Since assuming office, President Lazarus Chakwera and Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima have had a complicated and frequently tense relationship.
In order to win the 2020 presidential election, the two political figures first forged a political partnership, with Chilima of the United Transformation Movement (UTM) and Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) fielding a combined ticket.
Their electoral triumph against former president Prof. Peter Mutharika was made possible in large part by their collaboration.
Dr. Chilima was charged with corruption by President Chakwera’s administration in 2022; however, the accusations were dismissed by the courts this month due to political motivations, as many have stated, to prevent Chilima from challenging Chakwera in 2025.
The dropping of the corruption accusations made it possible for Dr. Saulos Chilima to challenge his employer in the presidential election of the following year.
Chakwera was supposed to run for a single term, according to the Vice President, but the President broke their agreement.
The Vice President would have faced off against President Chakwera in the upcoming general elections in Malawi, which are set for 2025.
