Blantyre, Malawi — Officials in Malawi say hope has all but disappeared for finding the roughly 500 people still missing two weeks after Cyclone Freddy struck the country. Disaster‑management officials announced on Wednesday that the focus will now shift to rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed by the cyclone.
Charles Kalemba, commissioner for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, told reporters that the search and rescue effort has ended in several districts, including Chiradzulu, where the government used excavators to sift through muddy rubble. However, the police‑and‑military search team continues to work in two other mudslide‑hit districts, Phalombe and Mulanje. “At this point … the work that they have done, even using the sniffing dogs, the chances of them being found are very slim,” Kalemba said. “But we have a process that would be followed where we would declare the missing [people] to have been passed on.”
The storm killed at least 676 people and displaced more than 650,000 others in southern Malawi. It also destroyed many bridges and roads, leaving many areas reachable only by boat or aircraft. Kalemba said the country has begun road reconstruction, employing military engineers from Malawi and Tanzania. Major General Saiford Kalisha, chief of military operations and training for the Malawi Defense Force, told reporters that the isolated areas are expected to be accessible by road within about four weeks.
The cyclone has raised fears of an imminent food shortage in the affected regions. The Department of Disaster Management Affairs reported that about 2.3 million people in southern Malawi have lost their crops and livestock. Speaking during a televised prayer organized by the Evangelical Association of Malawi, President Lazarus Chakwera urged Malawians not to lose hope, urging them to turn to God: “There can be no hope if you know that there is no one to call up and too many of us are losing it because our hearts are failing us, because of fear… We need to understand that there is a higher power who loves each one of us and loves this nation and who gives hope where there seems to be no hope at all.”
In response to the devastation, the Malawian government has made significant adjustments to its 2023‑2024 national budget, including allocating funds to purchase two aircraft for future search‑and‑rescue operations.
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