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President Lazarus Chekwara of Malawi has declared a 21-day national mourning in honour of Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other persons who died in a plane crash.<\/p>\n

The President directed that all flags be flown at half-mast throughout the mourning period.<\/p>\n

The body of Chilima and his co-passengers were found in the wreckage of the ill-fated plane on Tuesday, June 11, after the plane crashed earlier on Monday.<\/p>\n

The deceased had left the country\u2019s capital Lilongwe on Monday on a condolence visit to the family of a former cabinet minister, Ralph Kasambara, only for their own families to now become homes for condolences.<\/p>\n

The Dornier 228 aircraft carrying them had gone missing, and searchers found on Tuesday that it crashed over the Chikangawa Forest Reserve in the northern part of Malawi.<\/p>\n

Malawi is thus currently in a national mourning mood, which commentators see as reflecting the country\u2019s respect and recognition of the contributions of the vice president and the other prominent victims of the air crash.<\/p>\n

Chilima was reputed for having strong feelings against corruption, although he had himself recently faced corruption charges.<\/p>\n

He was accused of receiving money in return for influencing the award of some government procurement contracts, but he denied the allegations, and prosecutors dropped the charges last month.<\/p>\n

Chilima died in that ghastly air crash on Monday after he had just returned from an official visit to South Korea the day before.<\/p>\n

He was in his second term as vice president after serving from 2014-2019 under former President Peter Mutharika.<\/p>\n

Fully known as Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, the late vice president was a 51-year-old economist and politician who had earlier served as the Minister of Economic Planning and Development, as well as Head of Public Sector Reforms.<\/p>\n

Born on February 12, 1973 in Ntcheu, Malawi, Chilima was the first child of Henderson Brown Chilima of Ching\u2019anga Village, T\/A Njewa, Lilongwe and Elizabeth Frances Chilima of Mbilintengerenji Village, T\/A Champiti, Ntcheu.<\/p>\n

Chilima spent most of his early life in Blantyre, where his parents were working.<\/p>\n

After his primary and secondary schools, he proceeded to the University of Malawi where he graduated with a degree in social sciences in 1994.<\/p>\n

He returned to his alma mater to pursue a master\u2019s degree in Knowledge Management, graduating in 2006. On 10 August 2015, Chilima received his Ph.D in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton, United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

More about late Vice President Chilima as Malawi declares 21-day mourning<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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