The Center for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has given President Lazarus Chakwera a 14-day ultimatum to resolve the long overdue land disputes in Thyolo and Mulanje districts.

CDEDI’s Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said the land matter has been neglected for a long time by all the governments that have come to power hence the need for action.

Namiwa says the land matter has also bred a lot of negative effects on the affected people but also to the nation as a whole hence the need to urgently resolve the matter.

He says some of the negative impacts on the people are perennial hunger, malnutrition, high HIV and AIDs prevalence in the area and also child labour to mention a few.

“There are high illiteracy levels due to school dropouts a result of child labor, early marriages, high poverty levels and acute perennial hunger,” said Namiwa.

In light of this he has asked Chakwera to finalize the matter in 14 working days and do the following: compensate and relocate all the landless and badly affected people, the land in question should be partitioned and the estates should surrender the land to the locals.

If Chakwera fails to adhere to the two- week ultimatum, Namiwa said CDEDI is going to sue the government of Malawi in an international court of law so that there is justice for the people of Thyolo and Mulanje who are suffering at the expense of foreign peoples.