By Frank Phiri
BLANTYRE, Malawi (Reuters) -An plane carrying Malawi’s vice chairman, Saulos Klaus Chilima, and 9 others has gone lacking, the southern African nation’s presidency stated on Monday.
Chilima, 51, was aboard a navy plane that left Lilongwe, the capital, at 09:17 a.m. (0717 GMT), Malawi’s Workplace of the President and Cupboard stated. It stated search and rescue operations have been ongoing.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Plane because it went off the radar have failed to this point,” it stated in a press release.
The plane had been scheduled to land at Mzuzu Airport at 10:02 a.m., in keeping with the assertion.
Malawi’s data minister, Moses Kunkuyu, informed state broadcaster MBC that the search efforts had been intensified.
Chilima, seen as a possible candidate in subsequent yr’s presidential election, was arrested in 2022 over graft allegations.
Nonetheless, a Malawi court docket dropped the corruption fees towards him final month after the director of public prosecutions filed a discover for the case to be discontinued. Chilima has denied any wrongdoing.