The Malawi government said Wednesday that Vice President Saulos Chilima will be honored with a state funeral after he died in a plane crash along with eight other people.
President Lazarus Chakwera had already announced 21 days of national mourning on Tuesday, when the wreckage of the small military plane carrying Chilima and a former first lady was discovered in a mountainous area in the country’s north. Flags will fly at half-staff across the southern African nation during the period of mourning.
Chakwera has appointed a ministerial committee to oversee preparations for Chilima’s state funeral, the government said in a statement. No date was announced.
Chakwera previously said that there were 10 people on the plane but the government now says that a total of nine were on board when it crashed.