Malawi is becoming ever more chaotic, and some things just beggars belief. If you needed proof that things in Malawi really are very bad, and that there is a critical lack of good leadership at every level, look no further than this. You don’t even hear of such stories from places like Somalia, let alone Afghanistan or Iraq. But in Malawi, this happens.

As if there’s not enough trouble caused by the living, this time its the dead (literally) that are causing trouble, in that according sources in Malawi, the mortuary of the largest hospital in the Central region has been closed due to the smell from the mortuary since soem of its refrigerators stopped working. Mind you this hospital is the largest referral hospital in the central region, something a little bit like what Queens Medical centre is to the East Midlands, here in the UK.

Capital Radio, a local radio station said the mortuary in Lilongwe has been closed due to the breaking down of its cold rooms, which stopped functioning over three months ago, and have since not been fixed.

Staff at the hospital who did not want to be named said the move to close the mortuary was taken to clear the only functioning cold room (one of four) in the hospital, which is already congested.

The hospital administration has failed to repair the broken cold rooms which are still in use and have been producing noxious smells to the discomfort of hospital staff and any passerby. Residents in or around Lilongwe who had bodies or relatives in the mortuary have been asked take them away from the mortuary. Most have been devastated by this news as they did not expect to be asked to remove the dead bodies immediately. Mortuary staff also staged a sit-in to protest against the hospital administration for letting things get this bad.

Health authorities say they received the following statement from Kamuzu Central Hospital:

“Kamuzu Central Hospital mortuary has 3 cold rooms and at the beginning of last week, only one cold room was working. and considering that this is a facility that has always had 3 cold rooms, obviously the only room working was under pressure such that some of the unclaimed bodies were placed in cold rooms that weren’t working.

“Meanwhile, Kamuzu Central Hospital management were in negotiation with the company that maintains the cold rooms to work on them and also facilitating a payment for the service to be rendered.

“Being a time when funding had already been allocated, extra resources had to be sourced and the maintenance company started working on the cold rooms towards the end of last week and we have been told that as of today, 2 cold rooms are working and the third one is currently being maintained.”

Another source via the Nation here (Warning gruesome pictures!)(Pictures courtesy of Thoko Chikondi)