A vehicle in Malawi’s late vice president’s burial procession slammed into mourners in a village on Sunday night, killing four and injured 12, according to authorities.
It was part of a procession carrying the body of Saulos Chilima, who was killed in a plane tragedy earlier this week.
The truck plowed into a throng in Ntcheu, a community in central Malawi.
The car, together with other military, police, and civilian vehicles, was on its way to Chilima’s home village, Nsipe, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the capital Lilongwe, for his burial on Monday, which has been proclaimed a national holiday.
“Due to the impact the two female and two male pedestrians sustained severe head injuries and multiple fractures and died whilst receiving treatment”Police issued a statement.
According to police spokesman Peter Kalaya, 12 more persons were hurt.
Thousands of people lined the streets to see the vice president’s casket.
According to an eyewitness, the vehicle collided with the throng while attempting to maneuver away from the tense situation.
Felix Njawala, a spokesman for Chilima’s party, said there was considerable tension along the road as mourners asked that the procession stop so they could see the casket.
“In Dedza, people blocked the road and demanded to see the coffin,” he told AFP. “Only when the convoy stopped were people pacified and the convoy was able to proceed,” he added. In other cases, protesters threw stones at the caravan.
While he admitted that party supporters had questions, he urged them to remain peaceful.
On Thursday, the party itself called for a probe into the jet disaster.
Chilima and eight others died on Monday when a military plane on an internal flight crashed into Malawi’s Chikangawa Forest in severe fog.
The wreckage of the jet was discovered on Tuesday.
In the 2020 presidential election, his party, the United Transformation Movement (UTM), will run on a combined ticket with President Lazarus Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
During a public viewing of the body at a Lilongwe stadium on Sunday afternoon, Chakwera asked for an impartial investigation into the disaster.
“People want to know how the jet carrying the Vice President and others went missing before crashing. “I, too, want to know what happened,” he stated.
The aircraft, a Malawi Army Air Wing Dornier 228-202K, vanished after failing to land in the northern city of Mzuzu owing to bad weather and being instructed to return to the capital.
AFP