Malawi’s government has announced that vice president Saulos Chilima will be honored with a state funeral following his death in a plane crash along with eight others.
President Lazarus Chakwera had already declared 21 days of national mourning on Tuesday, when the wreckage of a tiny military plane carrying Mr Chilima and a former first lady was discovered in a hilly territory in the country’s north.
Flags will be flown at half-staff across the southern African nation during the mourning period.
Mr Chakwera has formed a ministerial committee to oversee preparations for Mr Chilima’s state funeral, according to a government statement. There was no date announced.
The President earlier stated that there were ten individuals aboard the plane, but the administration now reports that nine people were on board when it crashed.
The President stated that the twin propeller aircraft crashed in a steep, forested area during terrible weather, killing everyone on board.
Former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, was among those killed. Six passengers and three military personnel were murdered.
The jet was carrying Mr Chilima and members of his staff on a short journey from the capital, Lilongwe, to the northern city of Mzuzu to attend the burial of a former government minister when it went missing early Monday morning.
Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and forest rangers searched for more than 24 hours before the wreckage was discovered in a forest plantation south of Mzuzu.
The remains of the victims were brought back to Lilongwe on a Zambian Air Force helicopter on Tuesday night, when officials and mourners including Mr Chakwera and Mr Chilima’s wife, Mary, gathered at an airport.
The bodies of Mr Chilima and the others were transported from the airport in ambulances as soldiers lined the tarmac and saluted.
