BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) Malawi's budget director was shot and severely wounded Friday in an attack that was apparently related to his efforts to fight corruption, the president's office said Sunday, describing the shooting as an attempt to silence anti-graft officials.
Paul Mphwiyo was the victim of "a barbaric and targeted shooting" as he entered his home on Friday night, the office of President Joyce Banda said in a statement.
Mphwiyo's shooting "was not just any other robbery but a planned and targeted attack aimed at silencing him and the government in the fight against high levels of corruption and fraud," the statement said.
Mphwiyo was being treated in a South African hospital and his condition was critical but stable, it said.
Official corruption and organized fraud had become "entrenched in the past years" in Malawi, the statement said, adding that the anti-graft work Mphwiyo did "will in no way be deterred" by the attack.
