APA-Blantyre (Malawi) The United Nations has availed US5.5 million to assist the Malawi government to respond to the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in the country’s Southern Region over the past week, the global body said on Monday.
In a statement, the UN announced that its emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths “has released US$5.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to assist people affected by the Tropical Cyclone Freddy weather system in Malawi.”
UN resident coordinator for Malawi, Rebecca Adda-Dontoh said the CERF grant would go towards the provision of medical supplies and other necessities such as clean water and shelter to families affected by the cyclone.
“In support of the Government-led response, through this CERF grant, we will aim to assist those who have been hardest-hit with life-saving and life-sustaining assistance, including water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter and vital non-food items, food, healthcare and prevention of gender-based violence and child protection risks,” she said.
Southern Malawi was affected after Tropical Cyclone Freddy made its second landfall in Mozambique on 11 March and moved over land as a tropical depression, bringing torrential rainfall, devastating floods and mudslides to Malawi from 12 March.
At least 447 people had – as of 18 March – been killed by the floods and mudslides while nearly 363,000 others had been displaced and were being sheltered in over 500 camps across flood-affected areas of Malawi.
At least 282 people were missing while some 75,000 hectares of cropland had been flooded, just as farmers were about to harvest the only crop of the year.
According to the authorities, these figures are expected to rise in the days ahead as further information becomes available, especially in areas where people remain trapped by the flood waters and full information is not yet available.
The Cyclone Freddy devastation comes at a time Malawi is still facing its deadliest cholera outbreak in recent history, with 54,491 total infections and 1,677 deaths reported between February 2022 and 28 March 2023.
Experts fear that there is a high risk that the disease could spread in flood-affected areas.
JN/APA