Africa: According to a report obtained from the country’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs, Tropical Cyclone Freddy killed 326 people and displaced tens of thousands from their homes in Africa’s Malawi region. According to authorities, over 30 people have died in Chilobwe, one of the hardest-hit areas, and dozens more are still missing as search and rescue efforts continue.
On Monday, people were seen searching for survivors in the rubble with shovels and even their bare hands. A lady, told media that she awoke to a deafening noise “resembling the sound of an aeroplane.” “It was around 12,” she said, “and I heard the sound accompanied by shouting from people upland.” A torrent of muddy water, accompanied by rocks and trees, cascaded down the mountain. Everything she owned was washed away.
Malawian families were forced to scoop waters out of freshly dug graves before victims of Tropical Cyclone Freddy could be laid to rest. The death toll since landfall last month, across Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar, is now over 300 https://t.co/F93ID0ij8D pic.twitter.com/BqiYBeyeYl
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 16, 2023
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences for the deaths caused by Cyclone Freddy in Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar. In difficult times, he said, India stands with the people of the affected countries. The Malawi Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change stated on Tuesday that the cyclone was ‘weakening but will continue to cause torrential rains associated with windy conditions in most parts of Southern Malawi districts’.
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The government has established 30 emergency camps to house at least 20,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes.
Blantyre, Malawi’s hilly commercial capital, has been hit the hardest, with residents killed in landslides and homes crumbling into flood waters.
“Even our health workers require assistance,” Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda told the BBC’s Focus on Africa.
She described the situation as “very fragile,” claiming that the storm had affected more than five million people.
Weather monitoring centres warned that countries are still vulnerable to flooding and landslides days after the cyclone passed over them. Hundreds of people have been relocated to camps, but food and clean water remain scarce, according to Andrew Mavala, executive director of the Malawi Network for Older Persons, who is working with dozens of elderly people who are unsure how they will recover.
