Category Archives: Malawi

Malawi vice-president and nine others killed in plane crash

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Wreckage of plane carrying Chilima and former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri found after weather warnings, says President Chakwera

Malawi’s vice-president, Saulos Chilima, and nine other people have been killed in a plane crash, the country’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, said in a live televised address.

The wreckage of the military plane carrying Chilima and the former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri to a funeral of an ex-minister on Monday was found on a hillside in the Chikangawa forest, a mountainous area in the north of the country.

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Malawi soldiers search mountain forests after plane carrying vice-president goes missing

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President speaks of ‘heartbreaking situation’ after aircraft carrying Saulos Chilima and nine others goes missing in bad weather

Soldiers are searching mountainous forests in northern Malawi after an aircraft carrying vice-president Saulos Chilima and nine others went missing on Monday.

The plane carrying Chilima, former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri and eight others left the capital, Lilongwe, at 9.17am and had been expected to land 45 minutes later at Mzuzu international airport, about 370km (230 miles) to the north.

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Malawian journalist arrested over article accusing businessman of corruption

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Rights groups condemn arrest of Macmillan Mhone, who was charged with ‘publication of news likely to cause fear and alarm’

Human rights watchdogs have condemned the arrest of a journalist in Malawi in connection with an article accusing a wealthy businessman of corruption.

Police in Blantyre detained Macmillan Mhone on Monday over a story that was published online last August on the Malawi 24 news site.

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Death toll rises to seven in Malawi elephant relocation project linked to Prince Harry NGO

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Exclusive: The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversy

Four more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.

In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country’s second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi’s national park service and two NGOs: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), and African Parks. Prince Harry was president of African Parks for six years, before being elevated to the board of directors from 2023.

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World first: malaria vaccine rollout begins in Cameroon

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Another 19 African countries have plans to join the programme – bringing ‘more than just hope’ to a continent that suffers the vast majority of malaria deaths

The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”.

The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to children in the west African country, the first to be vaccinated after successful trials of the drug in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi between 2019 and 2021.

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Cholera cases soar globally amid shortage of vaccines

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Resurgence classified as grade 3 emergency by WHO, with southern Africa and Haiti among those hardest hit

Cholera cases soared last year, according to preliminary data from the World Health Organization, which recorded 4,000 cholera deaths and 667,000 cases globally.

The numbers surpassed that of 2022, and the WHO has classified the global resurgence of cholera as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level.

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Plastic waste ‘spiralling out of control’ across Africa, analysis shows

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Predicted 116m tonnes of waste annually by 2060 is six times higher than in 2019, driven by demand in sub-Saharan Africa

Plastic waste is “spiralling out of control” across Africa, where it is growing faster than any other region, new analysis has shown.

At current levels, enough plastic waste to cover a football pitch is openly dumped or burned in sub-Saharan Africa every minute, according to the charity Tearfund.

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Malawi swelters in record heat with temperatures nearly 20C above average

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Climate crisis blamed for extreme heat in African country, which has recorded temperatures of 43C

Malawians endured the country’s hottest weekend on record, with temperatures reaching nearly 20C above the seasonal average.

The heatwave began last Thursday with the government warning people to stay out of the sun, to keep hydrated, and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Some school buildings in the south of the country were evacuated, and children were taught in the shade of playground trees.

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Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO

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Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

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Polio scare hits Malawi with 17 possible cases, just as huge vaccine drive ends

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Cyclone Freddy cited as contributing factor in feared new outbreak that follows inoculation of 8 million children

Malawi is investigating at least 17 suspected polio cases just as a vaccination campaign is completed with more than 90% of the country’s children inoculated against the virus.

Health authorities fear Cyclone Freddy – the world’s longest-lasting tropical cyclone – which made landfall in March in the southern African nation and led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of displacements – could be a contributing factor.

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Religious groups march in Malawi before court case on LGBTQ+ rights

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Faith leaders say the proceedings, brought by a transgender woman, are an attempt to legitimise ‘sinful acts’

Scores of religious groups and churches took to the streets of several cities in Malawi on Thursday to denounce same-sex marriage before a constitutional court hearing next week.

The court is expected to sit for two days from 17 July to consider a case brought by Jana Gonani, a transgender woman who was charged with “unnatural” behaviour.

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Hundreds of refugees in Malawi rounded up and sent to camps

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Army brought in to forcibly relocate refugees from the capital, despite pleas from human rights organisations

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers in Malawi have been forcibly relocated from the capital, Lilongwe, to an overcrowded government camp.

Over the past week, more than 300 refugees, including 100 children, have been rounded up and sent to Dzaleka camp, about 30 miles away.

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Malawi’s Rastafarian children return to school after ban on dreadlocks is lifted

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Schools told to honour court order as families seek compensation and training for pupils who missed education because of their hair

About 1,200 Rastafarian children in Malawi are expected to return to state schools over the next month after being banned for a decade because of their hair.

After a landmark decision at the high court in March, letters have now been sent out to about 7,000 schools telling headteachers that the exclusion of children with dreadlocks from the classroom has been ruled as unconstitutional.

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Baby dead and 23 people missing after hippo collides with boat in Malawi

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Police in Nsanje say canoe was carrying 37 people across the Shire River when incident took place

A baby has died and 23 people are missing after a hippopotamus hit a boat travelling on the Shire River in Malawi, authorities have said.

Police in the African country’s southern district of Nsanje said the canoe was carrying 37 people across the waterway when the incident took place on Monday morning.

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Weather tracker: Cyclone Freddy leaves trail of devastation

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Hundreds killed in Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi in what may be longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record

Cyclone Freddy, which developed over the Indian Ocean more than a month ago, has dissipated this week, after making landfall a second time in southern Africa. The death toll had exceeded 300 across Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi by Thursday, with more than 700 people injured, 40 missing and 80,000 displaced.

The devastation was caused by severe flooding and landslides, which swept away roads and buried homes in mud. Power outages in Mozambique have affected small villages since last weekend, hindering rescue efforts as people await food and medical assistance.

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Cyclone Freddy death toll passes 200 as rescue workers warn more victims will be found

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People in Malawi and Mozambique picking up the pieces after fierce storm swept through at the weekend

The death toll from Cyclone Freddy in Malawi and Mozambique has risen past 200 on Tuesday, after the record-breaking storm triggered floods and landslips.

Rescue workers warned that more victims were likely as they scoured destroyed neighbourhoods for survivors even as hopes dwindled.

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More than 100 killed as Storm Freddy returns to Mozambique and Malawi

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One of the strongest storms recorded in the southern hemisphere hit region for second time in a month

Mozambique and Malawi have been left counting the cost of Tropical Storm Freddy, which killed more than 100 people, injured scores and left a trail of destruction as it ripped through southern Africa for the second time in a month over the weekend.

Freddy is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere and could be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

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Children face acute risk amid Malawi’s deadliest cholera outbreak

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The disease, which has killed 1,500 people since last March, has been aggravated by heavy rains and an overburdened health system

Malawi’s cholera outbreak is the country’s deadliest on record, claiming more than 1,500 lives, according to the UN.

More than 50,000 cases have been detected in the landlocked country in south-east Africa since an outbreak was declared in March last year, triggered by two devastating tropical storms that hit the region. Almost 200 children have died.

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‘Bring your own syringe’: Malawi’s medical supplies shortage at crisis point

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A lack of essential drugs and equipment is causing health centres to close, while critics accuse the government of complacency

Health workers in Malawi claim the government is “ignoring” acute shortages of drugs and equipment that are crippling the country’s hospitals.

Patients have been asked to bring in their own syringes while the theatre and labour ward at the main Bwaila maternity hospital in the capital, Lilongwe – has faced temporary closures because “we don’t have equipment/supplies to work with”, according to a notice pasted to a wall. Regular power cuts are also impacting.

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Ethiopians found in Malawi mass grave thought to have suffocated

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Bodies tentatively identified as adults being secretly transported to South Africa on perilous ‘southern route’

Dozens of Ethiopian people whose remains were found in mass graves in northern Malawi last month most likely suffocated to death while being secretly transported, investigators and campaigners believe.

The tragedy came amid a spate of incidents underlining the dangers faced by tens of thousands of people who entrust their lives to criminal networks that promise passage to South Africa, the most developed country on the continent.

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