‘Doctors are becoming an endangered species’: Chithyola Banda calls for tighter security for Malawi’s medics

• Malawi has just 600 doctors for entire population, with staggering 1:33,000 doctor-patient ratio

• Opposition leader Simplex Chithyola Banda says killings could trigger exodus of medical staff abroad

• Health Minister admits she is ‘saddened’ and probing whether doctors are being deliberately targeted

A chilling wave of violence against Malawi’s doctors has sparked an urgent call for armed police protection, after two female medics were brutally killed in their own homes in the space of months.

Leader of the Opposition Simplex Chithyola Banda used a dramatic address in Parliament to warn that the country’s desperately thin medical workforce is being put at risk by the attacks — and demanded government act immediately to protect those who remain.

Malawi has just 600 doctors to care for its entire population, Chithyola Banda revealed — made up of 459 general practitioners and a mere 177 specialists. That leaves a doctor-to-patient ratio of roughly one doctor for every 33,000 people.

The opposition leader did not mince his words, branding medics an ‘endangered species’ and demanding to know what the Ministry of Health was doing to keep them safe.

He called on the Minister of Homeland Security to roll out police protection for doctors, particularly in high-risk areas — warning that failure to act could drive terrified medics to flee the country altogether, deepening an already dire staffing crisis.

‘We are saddened’: Minister admits fears doctors are being targeted

Health Minister Madalitso Kazombo told Parliament she shared the opposition’s alarm, revealing her ministry was working hand-in-hand with Homeland Security in the wake of the killings.

“We are saddened that we have lost two female doctors in a row to brutal killings. This is unacceptable,” she said gravely.

Chillingly, she admitted officials could not yet say whether the murders were random tragedy or something far darker.

“We are concerned and are asking whether this is a coincidence or whether doctors are being targeted,” she told MPs.

The minister praised police for moving quickly on the investigations, but poured cold water on the bodyguard proposal — insisting it had never formally landed on her desk and would be near-impossible to deliver given stretched police resources.

A string of horror killings

The calls for action come after a spate of horrifying attacks on medical professionals.

In November 2025, armed robbers stormed the Blantyre home of Victoria Bobe, a respected lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, and killed her.

Then, just last week, tragedy struck again when Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital doctor Atughanile Chomo was killed at her home — also in Blantyre.

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