WHEREABOUT OF MALAWI’S VP STILL UNKONWN AS SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING AIRCRAFT
Read Time:2 Minute, 15 Second
Agency Report
The president of Malawi declared on Monday that he would not be sparing any resources in the hunt for the nation’s vice president, Saulos Chilima, who was aboard a missing military plane.
“I know that this is a heartbreaking situation… but I want to assure you that I am sparing no available resource to find that plane and I am holding on to every fibre of hope that we will find survivors,” president Lazarus Chakwera said.
In a televised speech to the nation, the leader said that terrible weather caused the jet, carrying 51-year-old Chilima and nine others, to crash. The plane took off soon after 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT).
Shanil Dzimbiri (Muluzi), the former first lady of Malawi, was also present.
The group was going approximately 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the city of Mzuzu for a former cabinet minister’s burial in the capital, Lilongwe.
“Upon arrival in Mzuzu the pilot was unable to land the plane due to poor visibility occasioned by bad weather, and aviation authorities advised their aircraft to return to Lilongwe, but the authorities soon lost contact with the aircraft,” Chakwera said.
The chief of state denied reports in local media that nighttime search activities had been called off.
He claimed that the army will provide regular updates to the public and that soldiers are “still on the ground carrying out the search, and I have given strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found.”
Earlier in the day, Chakwera gave the order for national and regional forces to launch an “immediate search and rescue operation.”
He said he had already contacted the governments of various countries including the US, Britain, Norway and Israel, who had all offered support “in different capacities”.
“Including the use of specialised technologies that will enhance capacity to find the plane sooner.”
Chakwera said that a telecommunication signal located the plane within a 10 kilometre radius of Riaply, a timber milling company in the poor southern African nation located south of Mzuzu.
Soldiers are said to be looking for the missing aircraft with torches and on foot, according to local media reports.
Various unconfirmed reports have circulated that eye witnesses saw a plane crashing into the forest earlier on Monday.
Chakwera has cancelled a visit to the Bahamas.
First elected vice-president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Chilima is widely loved in Malawi, particularly among the youth.
But in 2022 during his second stint in the job, Chilima was stripped of his powers after being arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman.
Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges.
AFP
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0