Analysis - With the death toll rising and the homeless increasing, Malawi, already grappling with a major cholera outbreak, sends out an SoS.
With the death toll rising and the homeless increasing, Malawi, already grappling with a major cholera outbreak, sends out an SoS.More than a week after tropical cyclone Freddy made landfall in Malawi, leaving a trail of destroyed homes, damaged roads, crippling the national power grid and jamming operations at the hydroelectric dam, government officials and experts appeared to be in a state of collective shock.
"We need assistance from our international partners and donors to deal with this tragedy. This is a national tragedy that has affected many people. Many have responded positively to our appeal but the situation is so grave that we cannot take any donation for granted," he said. With water systems and toilets destroyed by the tropical storm, there are fears that the development could worsen Malawi's deadliest cholera outbreak. Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre was one of the worst hit districts with 99 people killed in a day.
WFP said the cyclone hit the southern African country just as the rainy season was tailing off, with several rivers and water bodies already at high levels resulting in severe flooding. This has inundated farmlands and destroyed produce - just as farmers were about to harvest the only crop of the year - compounding an already difficult year in which 3.8 million people need food assistance.
Malawi, where 80 percent of the population subsists on smallholder agriculture, is at the sharp end of the climate crisis. There have been five major extreme weather events - drought and floods - over the last seven years. Cyclone Freddy comes in the wake of multiple crises, not least, a cost-of-living crisis triggered by food-price inflation. Maize prices have tripled in a year. And all this, along with the worst cholera epidemic in decades.
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