Médecins Sans frontières (MSF) has raised the alarm over the threat of cholera resurgence in Malawi as the country grapples with the devastating effects of Cyclone Freddy.
Development Diaries reports that Cyclone Freddy hit the southern region of Malawi on 12 March, 2023, with heavy rains and strong winds causing damage to infrastructure such as roads, buildings and electricity lines.
The districts most affected by the devastation are Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Mulanje, Mwanza, Neno, Nsanje, Thyolo, Phalombe and Zomba and this had led Malawi’s president to declare a state of disaster.
Recounting the level of damage, MSF Emergency Project Coordinator in Blantyre, Guilherme Botelho, warned that the number of casualties will increase in the coming days.
He said, ‘The situation is very dire. There are many casualties, either wounded, missing or dead, and the numbers will only increase in the coming days’.
Botelho noted that the hospital in Blantyre is overwhelmed with the influx of casualties coming from different areas, hence the MSF has put together a team of nurses and clinical officers to provide medical and logistic support.
‘We are also donating medical supplies and will assess if food needs to be provided to patients’, said Botelho.
Malawi’s Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba, on Monday revealed that at least 99 people were confirmed dead after Cyclone Freddy slammed into southern Malawi.
The storm had earlier made a second landfall in Mozambique, where authorities reported at least ten deaths and thousands displaced.
According to official numbers, Blantyre district has recorded the highest number of deaths in the country since the cyclone hit.
Scientists have linked cyclones to human-caused climate change, and Malawi and Mozambique are among the countries least responsible for climate change.
Data from the African Development Bank (AfDB) shows that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change.
Climate change poses systemic risks to the continent’s economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods.
Development Diaries calls on Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs to ensure the implementation of disaster risk management programmes in order to safeguard the lives of Malawians affected by this disaster.
Also, we call for an urgent response from the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP), which is a joint initiative of the AfDB and the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) to support Africa’s low-income countries impacted by climate change.
Photo source: CNN
