UN grants Malawi $5.5m to cope with damage caused by Freddy cyclone

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a humanitarian fund set up by the United Nations, has granted Malawi $5.5 million expected to be used to back hundreds of thousands of people affected by Freddy, a tropical cyclone that has hit the country in the past days.

The South of the African country has been battered by the cyclone which hit neighboring Mozambique.

The storm has caused immense damage including inundation of thousands hectares of farm lands and agriculture products. “Nearly 363,000 people are displaced and housed in more than 500 camps in flood-affected areas of Malawi. And the death toll has risen to 447, with at least 282 people still missing, according to a March 18 assessment by authorities,” the UN fund said in a statement.

“The destruction and suffering I witnessed in southern Malawi is the human face of the global climate crisis. The people I met, many of whom have lost their homes and loved ones, have done nothing to cause this crisis,” said the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malawi Rebecca Adda-Dontoh.

The UN expects the damage to swell as information keeps coming from the South of the country. The African country received torrential rains on March 11 caused by the storm. Several areas of the south region were flooded causing landslides.