Aircraft carrying Malawi vice president goes missing, presidency says

An aircraft carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others has gone missing, Malawi's presidency said on Monday.

"All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far," Malawi's Office of the President and Cabinet said in a statement.

Chilima, 51, was aboard a Malawi Defense Force aircraft that left the capital Lilongwe at 0917 local time (0717 GMT), the statement said, adding that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

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 statement said.

Chakwera, who was due 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.