The death toll from Cyclone Freddy, which dissipated in mid-March after massive flooding and landslides, could top 1,200 in Malawi as hopes of survivors dwindle, say , Thursday, March 30, the police and local authorities.
The cyclone, which also hit Mozambique and Madagascar, killed at least 676 people in Malawi. The chances of finding the missing 538, more than two weeks after the disaster, have become woefully slim, according to the disaster management department.
Search operations with sniffer dogs are continuing in places, its manager Charles Kalemba had explained the day before, but ceased in Blantyre, “the team on the ground having informed us that they had done their best”. The economic capital, where about a million people live, suffered extensive damage.
“Given the number of days that have passed, the chances of finding people alive are slim, so we will wait for the police to declare when we can consider the missing people dead,” he said.
"There is still work to do"
This decision is still premature, police spokesman Harry Namwaza told AFP on Thursday. “The police and the army are continuing the search. When we have completed this process, the time will come to declare the missing persons presumed dead. »
He did not advance on their duration. "It's hard to say because we're still reaching some places that were previously unreachable. There is still work to do,” he added.
Formed in early February off Australia, the exceptionally long-lasting cyclone made an unprecedented crossing of more than 8,000 km from east to west in the Indian Ocean. It followed a looping path rarely recorded by meteorologists, hitting Madagascar and Mozambique for the first time at the end of February, then again in March these two countries and Malawi.
In addition to the heavy toll in Malawi, Freddy also killed 165 people in Mozambique and 17 others in Madagascar, according to the UN.
