hadhwanaag
Malawi President
Lazarus Chakwera is appealing for additional humanitarian assistance for
thousands of Malawians displaced by Cyclone Freddy, which has killed more than
500 people in the country.
Chakwera made the
urgent request to Malawi’s parliament on Wednesday, when he was presenting an
assessment of the impact of the cyclone, which also hit Mozambique.
Though the country is
receiving a lot of local and international assistance for the victims, he said,
more aid is needed.
"So many have responded
positively to our appeal, and I have personally committed to acknowledge every
support, for the situation is so grave that we simply cannot take any
contribution for granted," he told lawmakers. "However, the supplies
we are deploying are far from enough for the magnitude of the need.”
Malawi’s Disaster
Management Affairs Department says there are more than 500,000 people who have
been displaced living at 534 camps.
Chakwera told the
lawmakers to bury their political differences and work together to address the
devastation caused by the powerful storm.
"This is one of the
darkest hours in the history of our nation," he said. "And if we are
to emerge in this dark hour and see the joy of a new dawn in the future, we
must all roll up our sleeves and get to work. If we are going to see the light
of a new dawn again, we must take the necessary steps now for safeguarding a
brighter tomorrow for Malawians.”
Chakwera announced the
government will soon introduce legislation aimed at helping to safeguard people
from natural disasters.
Kondwani Nankhumwa,
leader of opposition political parties in the Malawi Parliament, welcomed the
plan to have legislation for disaster management and emphasized the government
must deal with sanitation issues at evacuation camps to avoid the outbreak of
diseases.
"Our water resources
have been depleted, boreholes have been washed away, taps have been washed
away," said Nankhumwa. "Let me register a call that the government
should look into this with other partners, because if we allow these people to
continue drinking unprotected water from unprotected wells, then there will be
an outbreak of other diseases in camp.”
Cyclone Freddy hit
Malawi amid its deadliest cholera outbreak of the past two decades, which so
far has killed at least 1,600 people.
The Malawi Health
Ministry warned this week that the cyclone has increased the risk of the spread
of other communicable diseases, such as typhoid and dysentery.
VOA
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