Malawians gathered to mourn Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima under heavy surveillance on Monday, a day after residents of his home district protested the government’s response to the plane crash that killed him , along with eight other people, last week.
Mr Chilima, 51, was buried in his village of Nsipe, in Ntcheu district, about 160 km southeast of the capital Lilongwe.
The previous evening, the crowd, who believed that authorities had not acted quickly enough to organize a search and rescue mission when the military plane went missing, blocked the road and threw stones at the motorcade vehicles. funeral upon his arrival.
At one point Sunday evening, a car traveling on the main road plowed into a crowd, killing four people and injuring more than a dozen others, police said.
President Lazarus Chakwera, who has called for an independent investigation into the plane crash and the actions taken, attended the funeral on Monday but did not address mourners.
Political and religious leaders called for calm.
“Let us remember the vice president by observing peace and maintaining calm, which he always advocated,” said Archbishop Thomas Msusa of the Archdiocese of Blantyre, one of the clergy who celebrated the ceremony.
Chilima was the leader of the United Transformation Movement party. He joined forces with Mr Chakwera to form the Tonse Alliance, the ruling party, and was his running mate in their 2020 election victory.
Relations between the two men, however, have become strained in the run-up to the 2025 presidential election, in which the vice president is expected to challenge the president.
Mr. Chilima was arrested in 2022 following corruption allegations. However, a court dropped the charges against him last month after the Director of Public Prosecutions filed an application to dismiss the case. Chilima had denied any wrongdoing.
