Devastation in Malawi: At least 111 people die as a result of tropical cyclone Freddy

At least 111 people have died and 16 are missing in Malawi due to the effects of the disaster. tropical cyclone freddythat hit the country this Sunday after hitting Madagascar and Mozambique in recent weeks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Phenomenon led by the President Lazarus Chakvera declare a “state of emergency” in the Southern Region, forcibly relocating some 19,000 people in the most affected areas, according to the United Nations, including Nsanje, Chikwawa, Mulanye, Thiolo and Chiradzulu, as well as Blantyre and the city of the same name, commercial capital and second city in the country with 85 deaths.

Although cyclone “It has eased significantly, with heavy rains still falling in interior Mozambique and southern Malawi,” raising the risk of floods and landslides in the coming days, according to the latest OCHA report.

According to Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management, cyclone it could leave 400 to 500 millimeters of accumulated rain in the south of the country before easing on Wednesday.

Freddy is already one of the longest running cyclones and has the longest trajectory in decades, spanning over 10,000 kilometers since forming in northern Australia on February 4 and across the Indian Ocean to southern Africa.

The cyclone made its first impact on the east coast of Madagascar on February 21, where almost 300,000 people were injured and a total of 17 people died after Freddie returned to the island on Sunday, March 5.

Effects of Cyclone Freddy

On February 24, the cyclone reached Mozambiquewhere ten people died, adding another when he returned to the country late last week, international media reported.

Likewise, its passage affected more than 170,000 people in southern and central Mozambique.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Freddie could have broken the record for the duration of Hurricane-Typhoon John, which lasted 31 days in 1994, although the organization’s experts will not confirm this record until the cyclone dissipates.

The representative of this UN agency, Claire Nullis, assured last Friday that while the cyclone’s impact on Madagascar and Mozambique was “significant,” the number of deaths it left behind in those countries was limited by the accuracy of early weather forecasts. (EFE)