A Malawi police dog handler guides a sniffer dog through a mudslide affected area at the Manje informal settlement on the slopes of Soche Hill in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. AMOS GUMULIRA / AFP
Cyclone Freddy, which claimed more than 400 lives in southern Africa, affected more than half a million people in Malawi. The country, which is among the poorest in the world, is now at risk of a humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations, which raised the alarm on Friday, March 17. In six days, the equivalent of six months of rain fell in the south of the country, causing flooding and landslides.
Freddy “was reduced to a low-pressure area and fully disintegrated on March 15,” the local United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a situation report. “More than 500,000 people have been affected since March 12,” the agency said, and more than 183,000 people — out of a population of nearly 20 million — have been left homeless.
About 300 shelters have been opened, but the destruction still limits access for humanitarian teams and makes aid more difficult, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement.
Victims in Phalombe, South Malawi, Friday March 17, 2023. THOKO CHIKONDI / AP
280,000 children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid
Cyclone Freddy, with exceptional longevity, caused 326 deaths in Malawi. Also, 86 people died in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar, according to a recent report on Friday. The cyclone, which formed off Australia in early February and traversed the Indian Ocean from east to west an unprecedented distance of more than 8,000 kilometers, is on course to be classified as the longest on record.
In Malawi, more than 280,000 children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF spokeswoman Fungma Fudong warned. “There is a risk that the current cholera epidemic will worsen, with children being the most vulnerable to this crisis,” she added.
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A state of emergency has been declared in the country, and the police and army are deployed. President Lazarus Chakwera asked for international help. “The country will need significant support,” said WFP Malawi director Paul Turnbull, who pledged to mobilize as soon as possible.
South Africa tackles the rescue workers, Great Britain also has to send reinforcements. Neighboring Zambia has sent food and tents, according to a statement from the defense minister.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers Malawi was badly hit by Cyclone Freddy