Compared to the same time last year, the price of maize, the country's staple food, "has soared to record levels and is now 300 percent" just over a week after the deadly tropical storm lashed southern Malawi, the United Nations World Food Programme said in a statement.
The southern district of Nsanje saw the steepest food price hikes, with maize prices up by 400 percent as villages and markets have been rendered inaccessible, it said.
Cyclone Freddy dumped six months' worth of rainfall in six days in southern Malawi, leaving a trail of destruction, ripping apart roads and flooding farmland.
Malawi is now confronted with "worsening levels of food insecurity as families struggle to meet their food needs," the UN agency said.
About 117,000 hectares of farmland were flooded, it said.
Some 3.8 million people in the impoverished nation were already facing acute food insecurity before the cyclone struck, WFP said.
Cyclone Freddy has killed 499 people in Malawi, 350 others are missing, and half a million have been displaced.
Cyclone Freddy leaves half a million displaced in Malawi: UN
Lilongwe, Malawi (AFP) March 21, 2023 -
The deadly cyclone that lashed Malawi last week has displaced more than half a million people in the country, the UN said Tuesday as it warned of soaring humanitarian needs.
Cyclone Freddy dumped six months' worth of rainfall on southern Malawi in six days, with floods and mudslides sweeping away homes, roads and bridges in a record-breaking deluge.
The cyclone has left almost 500 people dead in the south of the country, while another 150 have died in its path in other southern African countries since the end of February, UN agency data shows.
"Nearly 508,250 people have been displaced and at least 499 killed" by the flooding in Malawi, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
"Heavy rains, strong winds, and floods attributed to the cyclone have had a devastating toll on the people across 14 districts -- nearly half the country -- with at least 1,300 people injured and 427 missing according to authorities."
Search and rescue operations are ongoing, with over 1,000 people evacuated, and more than 500 emergency shelters have been opened, it said.
"Those affected are in dire need of urgent humanitarian support with the most immediate needs being shelter, food, clean water, sanitation and hygiene, health, and protection", it added.
The country was already battling its deadliest cholera outbreak on record when the storm landed. The epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people and authorities and NGOs fear it will worsen.
"The people of Malawi are facing yet another catastrophic disaster with a potential long-lasting effect. It is important that we urgently reach the affected communities as the needs grow by the hour", the IOM said.
Cyclone Freddy first struck southern Africa in late February, hitting Madagascar and Mozambique, leaving Malawi unscathed.
The storm then moved back out over the Indian Ocean, where it drew more power from the warm waters before making a rare course reversal to slam into the mainland a second time.
Over one million people have been affected in Madagascar and Mozambique, with more than 160,000 people internally displaced, the IOM said.
Climate change-related extreme weather is increasingly driving displacement around the world, especially in vulnerable countries, the IOM said.
Over the past decade, storms, floods, droughts and climate-related disasters have caused an average of 21.6 million internal displacements each year, it said.
Related Links
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
