The European Commission has approved an emergency fund of two and a half million euros in humanitarian aid for countries affected by Cyclone Freddy. Mozambique will receive the lion’s share: 1.3 million euros, but aid will also reach Malawi and Madagascar.
Freddy was the longest tropical storm to hit southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. It lasted more than a month. Flooding and strong winds killed more than 500 people, mainly in Malawi and Mozambique.
There are hundreds of thousands of displaced people in need of humanitarian assistance. The most affected districts are Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Machinga, Mulanje, Neno, Nsanje, Phalombe, Thyolo, Zomba and Mangochi.
The eponymous city of Blantyre, the commercial capital and second city of the country, was one of the most affected places, registering at least 98 of the fatalities.
The phenomenon prompted the declaration of a “state of disaster” by the president, Lazarus Chakwera, who decreed 14 days of national mourning on Thursday to “honor the lives lost with Cyclone Freddy.”
The cyclone first struck the east coast of Madagascar on February 21 and returned to the island on March 5, leaving a total of 17 dead and 300,000 homeless.
In Mozambique, the cyclone, which made its first impact on February 24 and made landfall again late last week, has so far caused 66 deaths, according to Mozambican authorities.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Freddy could have broken the record for the duration of Hurricane-Typhoon John, which lasted 31 days in 1994, although the organization’s experts will not confirm this record until the cyclone has dissipated.
Source: TSF
