A military aircraft carrying Malawian Vice-President Saulos Chilima has gone missing after failing to land on Monday, according to a government statement.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” the statement from Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera’s office said.
The aircraft, which took off shortly after 9:00 am local time (0700 GMT), was carrying 51-year-old Chilima along with nine other individuals.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered regional and national forces to conduct an “immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft.” The aircraft was scheduled to land at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02 a.m., the statement added.
Chakwera, who was scheduled to travel to the Bahamas for a working visit, has since cancelled his trip.
In 2022, Chilima was stripped of his powers when he was arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman. Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges after Chilima attended several court appearances.
(With inputs from AFP)
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