Freaky Freddy: The longest-lived cyclone brings death and destruction to southern Africa
After four days of destructive wind and rain, local communities and relief workers are now confronting the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy. The cyclone has killed more than 250 people and displaced tens of thousands of others across Malawi and Mozambique
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Cyclone Freddy has dissipated after killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands in Mozambique and Malawi in southern Africa since late last week, although flooding remains a threat in both countries, a regional monitoring centre said late Wednesday. AFP
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At least 225 people have been killed in southern Malawi, including within the financial capital of Blantyre, officials said. Around 88,000 people are still displaced and parts of the region remain inaccessible. Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, has declared a 14-day national mourning period. AFP
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In Mozambique, authorities said at least 53 were killed since late Saturday. Over 45,000 people are still holed up in shelters, with about 1,300 square kilometres (800 square miles) still underwater, according to the EU’s Copernicus satellite system. AFP
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“There are many casualties — either wounded, missing, or dead and the numbers will only increase in the coming days," said Guilherme Botelho, the emergency project coordinator in Blantyre for Doctors Without Borders. AP
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Malawi, which has been battling a cholera outbreak, is at risk of a resurgence of the disease, Botelho said, “especially since the vaccine coverage in Blantyre is very poor.” AP
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Cyclone 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 centre in Réunion said. AP
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Freddy first developed near Australia in early February and travelled across the entire southern Indian Ocean before it bounced around the Mozambique Channel. AP
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The UN’s weather agency has convened an expert panel to determine whether it has broken the record for the longest-ever cyclone in recorded history, which was set by 31-day Hurricane John in 1994. AP
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Scientists say climate change caused by mostly industrialised nations pumping greenhouse gases into the air has worsened cyclone activity, making them more intense and more frequent. The recently ended La Nina that impacts weather worldwide also increased cyclone activity in the region. AFP
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African nations, who only contribute about four per cent of planet-warming emissions, are “once again paying the steepest price to climate change, including their own lives,” said Lynn Chiripamberi, who leads Oxfam’s southern Africa humanitarian program. AP
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