On Tuesday, the authorities in Malawi announced that 199 people had been confirmed dead in floods and landslides following the extreme weather at the weekend. The country’s emergency response agency says close to 600 are injured, and more than 30 are missing.
President Lazarus Chakwera has declared a state of emergency in the south of the country. There, around 19,000 have had to leave their homes as a result of the storm.
The rain continues
Cyclone Freddy is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the southern hemisphere.
Large areas have been flooded, and in both Malawi and Mozambique the storm has caused great destruction and has swept over land twice. The heavy rain continued on Tuesday. It is expected that the cyclone will continue to cause large amounts of rainfall until it turns over the sea again late Wednesday afternoon.
The disaster authorities in Mozambique confirmed on Tuesday that 17 people have lost their lives and that 1,900 homes have been destroyed in the coastal province of Zambezia. Tens of thousands are still seeking refuge in temporary centers and storm-proof shelters.
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Impossible to reach
According to Church Aid, the cyclone has hit the same areas as in 2022, when many people lost everything they owned in two other cyclones. The storm is linked to climate change.
– Everything has been washed away. Homes, livestock and crops have been washed away by the bodies of water, many lives have been lost, the organization writes in an email to NTB.
– Power and communication lines are down in many of the affected areas, which hinders emergency relief operations, says Stephane Dujarric, who is the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
It is currently not possible to reach the hardest hit areas and get an overview of the destruction there.