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President Bola Tinubu has extended his condolences to President Lazarus Chakwera and the people of Malawi over the death of Vice President Saulos Chilima and other officials in a plane crash.
Tinubu, in a statement, commiserated with the families of the deceased over the June 10 incident.
“The President assures the Malawian nation of Nigeria’s support during this time of mourning and prays for the repose of the souls of the departed.”
Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera, yesterday broke the sad news of the death of Chilima and nine others, including former first lady, Shanil Dzimbiri, in a military plane crash.
The aircraft carrying Chilima, who was seen as a potential candidate in next year’s presidential election, went missing on Monday.
“I’m deeply saddened, I’m sorry to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill. They have found it completely destroyed with no survivors,” Chakwera said in an address to the nation.
The plane left the capital Lilongwe at 09:17 a.m. (0717 GMT) on Monday, but was unable to land at Mzuzu airport as scheduled at 10:02 a.m. due to poor visibility. It was ordered to return to Lilongwe but went off the radar and aviation authorities could not make contact with it.
Chakwera said all the passengers on board the aircraft were killed on impact, and that the military was bringing their remains back to the capital as at press time.
“Despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down and leaving us all devastated,” he said .
Images shared online showed security and rescue personnel on the crash site on a hillside with debris scattered around the tail of the Dornier 228-202K military transport plane, its tail number MAF T03 still visible.
Chilima, 51, returned from South Korea on Sunday after participating in the Korea-Africa summit, and was travelling with the other passengers on Monday morning to attend the funeral of Malawi’s former justice minister in the north of the country.
“Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen, who served his country with distinction, and a formidable vice president,” Chakwera said.
Chilima, former director of Airtel Malawi, was leader of the United Transformation Movement party. He partnered with Chakwera to form the ruling Tonse Alliance and ran as his running mate in their 2020 victory.
Relations between the two, however, had become frosty ahead of the 2025 presidential election in which the vice president was expected to challenge the president. Chilima was arrested in 2022 over graft allegations. However, a court dropped the charges against him last month after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice for the case to be discontinued. Chilima denied any wrongdoing.
