CYCLONE FREDDY WREAKS HAVOC IN MALAWI, MOZAMBIQUE; DEATH TOLL PASSES 100

Tue 14 March 2023:

Cyclone Freddy made landfall in Malawi over the weekend, killing at least 99 people there, according to authorities’ late-Monday reports.

According to the newspaper The Nation, the deaths were confirmed by Charles Kalemba, a commissioner at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

“Ninety-nine people have died, while 16 people are still missing, and 134 are nursing critical injuries,” Kalemba told reporters.

National carrier Malawi Airlines said all flights to Blantyre have been cancelled until further notice after an inbound plane ran into the bad weather and was forced back to the capital, Lilongwe.

The country’s energy utility also warned that electricity generation would be unstable, as it would have to temporarily shut down hydropower stations to prevent muddy water from damaging turbines.

Many of the Malawi deaths were in Chilobwe, a hillside settlement near Malawi’s second-largest city, Blantyre.

Most of the houses in the area are built with mud bricks, making them easily susceptible to damage under harsh weather.

According to the report, 85 of the deaths were recorded in Malawi’s commercial capital Blantyre alone, where camps were established to accommodate thousands of displaced persons.

Tropical Storm Freddy landed into Mozambique on Saturday, ripping off rooftops and causing huge destruction before moving to Malawi, where it caused heavy rains leading to mudslides. Schools have been suspended in the East African nation, also grappling with its worst cholera outbreak.

At least 136 deaths have been recorded since the storm first landed in February, causing causalities in Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi.

According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, Freddy, which formed off northwestern Australia in the first week of February, was set to become what is believed to be the longest lasting tropical cyclone on record. It crossed the entire southern Indian Ocean and blasted Madagascar from February 21 before reaching Mozambique on February 24.

Distressing images resulting from the landfall of cyclone Freddy in Zambezia province and neighbouring provinces in Mozambique.

Following what meteorologists describe as a “rare” loop trajectory, Freddy then headed back towards Madagascar before moving once more towards Mozambique.

The last cyclones to cross the entire southern Indian Ocean were Leon-Eline and Hudah in 2000.

The UN said more than 11,000 people were affected by the storm.

The impact of the cyclone has piled more woes on Malawi, a country grappling with the deadliest cholera outbreak in its history, which has killed more than 1,600 people since last year.

President Lazarus Chakwera declared a “state of disaster in the Southern region” of the nation. The government was responding to the crisis while appealing for local and international aid for affected families, his office said.