Chikangawa Forest on fire, Malawi’s biggest forest reduces to backyard tree plantation

Malawi’s forest firefighters are battling raging fires at Chikangawa which has reduced the southern Africa’s biggest man made forest into a small tree plantation.

Spokesperson for the department of Natural Resources Sangwani Phiri said government officials are on ground to quantiufy the damage.

Chikangawa Forest cuts through Mzimba and Nkhata Bay diustricts.

Phiri said the government would do all it can to control the fire believed to be started deliberately by some people every summer.

A company that runs Chikangawa Forest, Viply says it is makig fire controls in the forest to prevent the spread of it in an unaffected areas.

Some forestry officials say small trees have completed been burnt.