By Enyichukwu Enemanna
President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera on Wednesday, appealed to the international community to come to the aid of his country, as he attended the funeral of some of the victims of Cyclone Freddy in the southern city of Blantyre.
Local authorities say the cyclone has killed at least 225 people in Malawi’s southern region including, Blantyre, the country’s financial hub, while 88,000 people are displaced.
“Malawi is in a state of disaster. What Cyclone Freddy has done is to pull us back even when we were trying to rebuild because of past tragedies. And I appeal to the international community to please look at us with such favor because we need help”, the president told the international community.
Also in neighbouring Mozambique, officials say at least 20 people have died, since the storm made landfall in the port town of Quelimane on Saturday night.
Over 45,000 people are still hold up in shelters, with about 1,300 square kilometres (800 square miles) still under water, according to the EU’s Copernicus satellite system.
UN Coordinator in Malawi, Rebecca Adda-Dontoh, described the situation as “unimaginable.”
“There are people who are trapped, we can’t access the places, Phalombe and other places. Please, Malawi needs your support”, she added.
Chakwera has declared 14 days of national mourning with flags flying at half-mast for the first seven days.
Freddy was initially projected to exit back to the sea on Wednesday but has since waned and is no longer classed as a tropical cyclone, the United Nations’ weather monitoring center in Réunion said.
