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Four dead in funeral convoy for Vice President in Malawi

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A vehicle in the funeral convoy for the late Vice President of Malawi crashed into mourners in a village on Sunday evening, killing four people and injuring twelve, police said.

It was part of a motorcade carrying the body of Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash earlier this week.

The vehicle crashed into a crowd in Ntcheu, a village in central Malawi.

The car, along with other military, police and civilian vehicles, was taken to Nsipe, Chilima’s home village, 180 kilometers south of the capital Lilongwe, where he was to be buried on Monday, which was declared a public holiday.

“As a result of the impact, the two pedestrians and the other pedestrian suffered severe head injuries and numerous broken bones and died during treatment,” a police statement said.

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Police spokesman Peter Kalaya told AFP that 12 other people were injured.

Thousands of people had gathered in the streets to catch a glimpse of the Vice President’s coffin.

An eyewitness told AFP that the vehicle drove into the group as it tried to escape the explosive crowd.

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Felix Njawala, spokesman for Chilima’s party, said there had been tensions along the route as mourners demanded that the train stop so they could see the coffin.

“In Dedza, people blocked the road demanding to see the coffin,” he told AFP. “It was only when the convoy stopped that people calmed down and the convoy was able to move on.” He added that in some cases people had thrown stones at the convoy.

While acknowledging that the party’s supporters had questions, he urged them to keep the peace.

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The party itself called for an investigation into the plane crash on Thursday.

Chilima died along with eight others on Monday when a military plane on a domestic flight crashed into Malawi’s Chikangawa forest in thick fog.

The wreckage of the plane was found on Tuesday.

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His party, the United Transformation Movement (UTM), allied itself with President Lazarus Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the 2020 presidential election and ran together as a candidate.

At a public funeral service at a stadium in Lilongwe on Sunday afternoon, Chakwera called for an independent investigation into the accident.

“People want to know how the plane with the vice president and the others on board could disappear and crash. I also want to know what happened,” he said.

The aircraft, a Dornier 228-202K of the Malawi Army Air Wing, disappeared after it was unable to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was ordered to return to the capital.

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