The vice-president of Malawi, Saulos Chilima, lost his life on Monday after the military plane he was traveling in crashed, President Lazarus Chakwera confirmed to the nation today.

According to the head of the Malawian nation, the other nine people who were with Chilima also lost their lives.

In his message to Malawians, Chakwera said that the search and rescue team "found the aircraft on a hill, completely destroyed, with no survivors, since all the passengers on board died on impact".

He added that "words cannot describe how painful this is", a "terrible tragedy".

Chakwera said in a speech to the nation that the site of the accident was in a mountainous part of the Chikangawa Forest.

Among the victims of the disaster was the former first lady of Malawi, Shanil Dzimbiri.

The military plane, carrying 51-year-old Chilima and nine other people, disappeared on Monday after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.

Photographs shared with AFP by a member of the military rescue team show soldiers standing on a misty hillside near wreckage bearing the registration number of the Malawi Army's Air Wing Dornier 228-202K aircraft.

Chilima, seen as a potential candidate for next year's presidential elections, was arrested in 2022 on corruption charges.

However, a Malawian court dropped the charges against him last month after the Director of Public Prosecutions filed a notice to dismiss the case. Chilima has denied any wrongdoing.