Lilongwe (EFE) country today began fourteen days of national mourning for the disaster.
As of Wednesday, a total of 326 people have died, 201 are missing, and 774 have suffered injuries of varying degrees, the DoDMA said in a statement.
The new figures bring the total number of deaths caused by Freddy in southern Africa to more than 400, after repeatedly hitting Mozambique and Madagascar in recent weeks.
Floods and landslides displaced just over 183,000 people in Malawi after Freddy hit the Southern Region of the country, where Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Machinga, Mulanje, Neno, Nsanje districts were affected. , 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 deceased.
Fourteen days of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Freddy
The phenomenon led Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera to declare a “state of disaster”, who today decreed fourteen days of national mourning to “honor the lives lost by Cyclone Freddy”.
Chakwera visited Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre today, where he cheered on those injured by cyclone floods and landslides and praised health workers.
“I commend your dedication to your job. Without you we could have been in a much worse situation than now,” the president said, according to a government statement.
Freddy is already one of the longest lasting cyclones and with the longest trajectory in recent decades, having traveled more than 10,000 kilometers since it formed in northern Australia on February 4 and crossed the entire Indian Ocean to southern Africa.
The cyclone made its first impact on the eastern coast of Madagascar on February 21 and returned to the island on March 5, where it left a total of 17 dead and affected 300,000 people.
In Mozambique, the cyclone, which made its first impact on February 24 and made landfall again late last week, has caused at least 58 deaths.
As reported by 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.