Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Madagascar last week before passing through Mozambique and Malawi through the week, bringing torrential rains.
At least 48 people have been killed in Madagascar by flooding and an estimated 130,000 people were forced to flee their homes. Eighteen people were reportedly killed by the tropical storm in Mozambique, while 11 died in Malawi.
Rescue workers and authorities across the three countries are still in the process of assessing the full extent of the damage. Ana hammered 10,000 homes in Mozambique and damaged dozens of schools, hospitals, demolished roads and downed power lines. Many communities remain in darkness.
“The situation is of extreme concern” and “vulnerability is very, very high,” the UN’s resident coordinator in Mozambique, Myrta Kaulard, said per The Guardian. “The challenge is titanic, the challenge is extreme. Mozambique is responding to a complex crisis in the north which has caused an additional enormous strain on the budget of the country, on the population,” Kaulard said. “In addition, there is also Covid.”
Mozambique and Malawi are still recovering from 2019 cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, which caused an unprecedented amount of damage.
Aid agencies have erected dozens of temporary sites to house those displaced from their homes. Unicef has deployed staff to set up temporary learning centers as well as distribute food, medicine and water purification tablets in Mozambique.
Landry Ninteretse, regional director for environmental organization, 350Africa.org, stressed that Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique are dealing with the effects of a climate crisis.
“Disasters such as these are further evidence of the injustice suffered by the nations that contribute least to the climate crisis, as they bear the brunt of the crisis, by way of worsening climate impacts,” she told the Daily Maverick.
However, southern African countries are bracing themselves for another hit.
The South African Weather Service announced that Malawi and Zambia could experience more heavy showers over the weekend.
