Cyclone Freddy leaves a dire picture behind in Malawi
At the improvised morgue in Blantyre, Malawi, after Freddy's second visit, March 14, 2023. © ELDSON CHAGARA / REUTERS
Text by: Sidy Yansané Follow
5 mins
In Malawi, the search continues to find possible survivors after Freddy's return to this region of southern Africa.
This cyclone "out of the ordinary" by its trajectory caused nearly 200 victims, according to a provisional assessment of the authorities.
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Since Sunday, torrential rains have been falling on Lilongwe, causing floods and landslides.
Several districts are affected: Blantyre, the economic capital, or Mulanje and Nsanje, located further south.
Around 19,000 people have been displaced.
In Nsanje, around twenty emergency camps have been set up to accommodate them.
Their needs are critical.
"
Many people continue to flock to these camps
," says Patrick Sipuni, disaster risk management officer for Nsanje district.
Among them, children, women, men... Their communities were flooded and all their household goods were washed away.
They therefore need assistance in terms of household items, food, hygiene kits and even clothing.
We need enough tents to make available to displaced people,
he continues at the microphone of
Cristina Okello
, of the Africa service
.
Regarding the rescue operations, we managed to save a large number of people and the search continues.
We hope to find other survivors.
However, some data shows that Hurricane Freddy continues to have devastating effects, and the rain continues to fall.
»
►Also read: Africa press review - Freddy, illustration of climate change...
A surge of solidarity has been building since the arrival of Hurricane Freddy.
Since Sunday in Blantyre, the Malawi Land Rover Defender Club association has been working to bring aid to the victims and evacuate those still stranded by the waters.
#Malawi underwater.
Several districts in the south are affected by #floods caused by Cyclone #Freddy.
Images sent by Penjani Msowoya of Malawi Landrover Defender Club #Blantyre @RFI @RFIAfrique pic.twitter.com/Kq7mfCeTsD
— Christina Okello (@vivalid) March 14, 2023
Penjani Nsowoya is the president of the association.
With all-terrain vehicles, he and his fifteen members go to the rescue of the victims.
“
We cannot stand idly by and watch our fellow citizens suffer.
We will do our part and help the victims to evacuate to a safe place.
These floods occurred on the mountain of Soche.
The houses have been swept away, the roads are impassable, the bridges destroyed.
With our 4x4s, we managed to find safer roads, but inaccessible for a normal car.
Then we started collecting the survivors and dropping them off at one of the schools.
Some people are still stuck, and we need to quickly get out and help them.
This cyclone caused heavy rains, it has been raining continuously for four days.
In Blantyre we have no electricity.
The situation is really difficult.
»
Men dig for possible survivors in the thick mud and debris, after Cyclone Freddy hit, in the Chilobwe district of Blantyre, Malawi March 13, 2023. REUTERS - ELDSON CHAGARA
In Mozambique, preventive alerts limited the damage
In the
neighbor of Mozambique
, Freddy mainly hit the provinces located in the center of the country.
In some of these provinces the rains were so heavy that it fell in a single day which usually falls in a month.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), the second passage of the tropical storm in the country destroyed and damaged nearly 2,000 homes, pushing 22,000 victims to the accommodation centers of emergency for the province of Zambezia alone.
"
If it hadn't been for the government's prevention, the damage would have been greater,"
Mozambican businessman Smith Atiena told
Lígia Anjos
, from the Portuguese-speaking service.
Fortunately, the government anticipated and informed the populations, day after day, minute after minute, about the risks and the intensity of Cyclone Freddy.
People were warned in advance and no longer went out, so the damage was minimized.
But this phenomenon is unheard of, I'm talking about age groups between 20 and 40, we had never seen such a thing.
It was so intense that we are overwhelmed by this destructive phenomenon.
»
Cyclone Freddy caused at least ten deaths during its passage through Zambezia province, according to provisional data from the president of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, Luisa Meque: "We currently have
22,000 people at our accommodation centers in the province of Zambézia, which correspond to about 4,000 families
, she told
Orfeu Lisboa
, our correspondent in Maputo.
Among the ten deaths confirmed by the Ministry of Health, nine are due to the collapse of the walls of houses and one to drowning.
In the other provinces, in the province of Niassa, it still rains a lot, we do not have relevant information at the moment.
Sofala province currently has about 8,000 affected people.
We can also say that for the province of Tete, 23 people are in our accommodation centers.
We continue to ask people not to travel to these coastal areas.
We remain on high alert.
We are expecting more heavy rains which will occur in the central provinces, mainly the province of Zambézia.
»
In Madagascar, the tropical cyclone did less damage than expected, despite the deaths recorded and nearly 300,000 victims in the southern part of the island, where schools and administrative buildings in some towns are still under water.
►Also listen: International guest - Cyclone Freddy: "The longer a cyclone lasts, the more likely it is to affect inhabited areas"
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