The World Health Organisation (WHO) said over 600 people have died after Cyclone Freddy wrought destruction in three countries in southern Africa over the past two months, sparking growing calls from the African nations affected for more international attention and aid.
Aid agencies scramble to meet the increasing humanitarian needs of those impacted by the cyclone which has wrecked havoc in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique since the first time it hit in Febraury as they are also been forced to tackle rising cholera cases, malnutrition and large numbers of displaced families.
According to Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, the destruction that came with the cyclone has claimed the lives of 605 people, affected over 1.4 million others in the three countries as of 20 March and “stretched the capacity of health facilities”.
The WHO has called for “increased and concerted humanitarian assistance” for recovery efforts as the long-lasting and brutal cyclone has also destroyed houses, roads, farmland and hospitals and “left an appalling humanitarian situation in its wake”.
Madagascar and Mozambique were the earliest to be hit by Cyclone Freddy in February, after which it returned to the Indian Ocean. It made its second landfall in March, which was far more devastating in Malawi where it has killed about 500 people and again in Mozambique, where around 900,000 people have been affected.
There are growing concerns about a resurgent cholera outbreak in the region, with Malawi and Mozambique already among the countries most affected by a cholera outbreak that has spawned more than 68,000 cases across 12 countries in southern and eastern Africa this year alone.
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The UN children’s agency UNICEF said “millions” of children and their families in Malawi and Mozambique are vulnerable to a “potential increase” in cholera cases, with inadequate water, hygiene, health and sanitation systems further weakened by the devastation and flooding stemming from the cyclone.
Cholera cases in Mozambique have risen almost four fold to about 11,000 since February, according to Unicef. Other humanitarian needs are mounting in the region and aid agencies are pooling resources to alleviate the unfolding disaster.
In Malawi, about four million people – a fifth of the population – was already facing food insecurity, with close to 120,000 hectares of farmland destroyed by floods.
Among those in dire need of assistance are over 500,000 people displaced by the floods, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The devastation is the latest in a string of weather-related disasters like floods, storms and debilitating droughts that have devastated sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade, highlighting the deadly impact of the climate crisis in a region with weak economies and infrastructure ill-equipped to cope with such destruction.
Story was adapted from the Independent.
