{"id":60090273,"date":"2025-07-15T10:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T09:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60090273"},"modified":"2025-07-15T10:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T09:44:28","slug":"im-tired-of-surviving-i-want-to-live-again-cyclone-freddys-legacy-in-malawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/im-tired-of-surviving-i-want-to-live-again-cyclone-freddys-legacy-in-malawi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m tired of surviving. I want to live again\u2019: Cyclone Freddy\u2019s legacy in Malawi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At first light, a ghostly mist clings to the slopes of southern Malawi\u2019s Mount Mulanje. It veils jagged, reddish-brown gashes carved by Cyclone Freddy, violent reminders of the landslides that tore through the slopes. These scars bear witness to one of the worst natural disasters in the country\u2019s recent memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, in the haunting stillness of Nkhulambe village, the morning breeze moves gently across a barren expanse where maize once flourished and laughter echoed. Now, silence remains, punctuated by the rustle of tarpaulin and the crunch of footsteps breaking earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Yohane crouches beside the cracked foundation of what was once her family home. She is 37, though the wear in her eyes suggests more. Beside her, no laughter, no child\u2019s footsteps \u2013 only absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still have dreams where I hear Blessings calling out for me,\u201d she says of her seven-year-old daughter, her voice calm but heavy. When the cyclone struck, both were swept ten kilometres away by a monstrous deluge \u2013 water, mud, and rock cascading from the mountain like liquid fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloodied and bruised, Yohane survived by clinging to a mango tree for three days. Her daughter\u2019s body was never found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cyclone beyond category<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been more than two years since Cyclone Freddy, one of the most energetic<\/a> ever recorded, roared across southern Malawi in March 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it made landfall, it was relentless. Rain pummelled already saturated soil, triggering landslides that particularly impacted<\/a> densely populated, poorer communities. In Malawi, the number of dead and missing is estimated to be over 1,200<\/a>. The country\u2019s Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) has put the economic damage at over USD 500 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The villages of Phalombe and Nkhulambe at the foot of Mount Mulanje, were particularly hard hit, as were Chilobwe and Manje, below Mount Soche, on the outskirts of Blantyre, Malawi\u2019s second-largest city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nkhulambe, many are still marked by the loss. Group village headman Nkhulambe, a soft-spoken 37-year-old who helped rescue people during the disaster, says 187 of his fellow villagers perished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cyclone has also harmed the land that many depend on for food. \u201cWe used to feed ourselves from the land,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now the fields are stone. Even with fertiliser, nothing grows. And then the fall armyworms came.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These pests, once rare in the region, now thrive in the altered ecosystem. \u201cIt\u2019s like nature turned against us,\u201d Nkhulambe adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recovery efforts and gaps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Malawi government, through DoDMA, has worked with partner organisations to respond to Cyclone Freddy\u2019s devastation. Spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula says the overall recovery strategy has been guided by a Post Disaster Needs Assessment<\/a>, designed to mobilise resources and take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But progress has been slow. \u201cSave for the construction of the new Makhanga Primary School, relocation of affected communities, and rehabilitation of roads and health facilities, overall progress has been gradual due to inadequate funds,\u201d Khamula tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe total reconstruction and recovery needs for physical and economic losses caused by Freddy amount to USD 680.4 million \u2013 raising this substantial amount of funds has been a tall order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Khamula, over 15,000 households \u2013 most of them from flood-prone zones like Makhanga, a village north of Mount Mulanje and close to Lake Chilwa \u2013 have been relocated to safer, higher ground. This process involved clearing access roads, transporting families, and ensuring they had access to potable water. In some cases, humanitarian organisations provided direct financial support<\/a> to families for rebuilding their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the official average of one household comprising 4.3<\/a> people, the DoDMA figures of 15,000 households would indicate that only about 64,500 of the 659,000<\/a> displaced have been relocated. Many have had to go back to their cyclone-damaged dwellings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the camps that once teemed with displaced families, silence now echoes. This is not because everyone left for a better place, but because some, like Mary Likopa, returned to dangerously disaster-prone zones out of desperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 42-year-old widow perches on the crumbled remains of her living room wall \u2013 what used to be the heart of her home. Her mud-brick house clings to the upper slope of a hill, mostly spared by the mudslides that thundered past just a metre away. Two of her living room walls were damaged, but her neighbour\u2019s home, just steps below, was swept away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Likopa has a haunting view of the devastation below \u2013 broken rooftops, debris, and the trail of mud that tore through everything in its path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cradles her two-year-old grandson, Wisdom, whose tiny frame burns with untreated malaria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"woman<\/div>
Mary Likopa holds her grandson Wisdom as she sits inside her cyclone-damaged home in Manje (Image: Jack McBrams)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"large<\/div>
The cyclone triggered landslides that brought mud and rock crashing down on villages like Nkhulambe (Image: Jack McBrams)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe medicine costs three US dollars. We don\u2019t have it,\u201d she says. She survives on piecemeal work \u2013 washing clothes, cleaning houses, earning about USD 1.50 for a day\u2019s work \u2013 but it\u2019s not enough. After two months in the Kapeni displacement camp in Blantyre, she was sent away with a single 50kg bag of maize flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one from the government has come back since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor David Chigamba, who represents survivors in Chilobwe, says the neglect is criminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey promised to relocate us. But nothing has happened. The land here should be declared a red zone. We are sitting in the path of death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every rainy season since, they flee their homes at the hint of a storm. When Cyclone Jude<\/a> was forecast in 2025, they left for two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe live in fear,\u201d he says. \u201cThe government can fix this. They can reallocate land. They just choose not to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promises in the wind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the cyclone, the government and international donors pledged<\/a> recovery funds. But on the ground, those promises seem to have drifted off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior DoDMA official admits that only 40% of the pledged funds have been disbursed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBureaucracy, capacity issues, and donor conditions are slowing us down,\u201d said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. \u201cBut the frustration is real, and we understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the humanitarian organisations responding was the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which launched large-scale relief and recovery operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WFP country director for Malawi, Hyoung-Joon Lim, says that after the cyclone WFP collaborated with Malawi\u2019s government to provide food assistance to over 550,000 people through \u201cin-kind food and cash transfers.\u201d

\u201cWe prioritised displaced families in camps and flood-affected communities. We focused on areas with the highest number of displaced people and the most severe infrastructure damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aid groups admit that key recovery efforts have stalled in the face of continued funding shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWFP Malawi has experienced funding shortfalls that have affected the scale and timing of our operations,\u201d Lim says. \u201cIt may limit the number of people in need that we can reach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With fewer resources, since July 2023 WFP has cut food rations for refugees in Dzaleka Camp by 50%<\/a> and pulled back on community and school feeding programmes. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to make some very tough choices,\u201d Lim adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent USAID funding pause<\/a> is likely to have made matters worse, the US having been a major donor<\/a> to programmes like WFP, though DoDMA says it\u2019s hard to measure the exact impact of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the aid go?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the disaster, MWK 6.2 billion (USD 3.5 million) was mobilised \u2013 MWK 1.6 billion (USD 900,000) of it from the Malawi government \u2013 along with 37,000 metric tonnes of maize, says Khamula. He adds that these funds went into critical recovery operations: decommissioning of camps, procurement of food and non-food items, and rehabilitation of roads and health centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DoDMA insists accountability was a priority. \u201cThe department issued detailed reports on donated financial and in-kind resources and the use thereof,\u201d says Khamula. \u201cWe further engaged affected [local government] councils and disaster-risk-management committees to identify and target beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, several villagers in Chilobwe and Soche in Blantyre, and Nkhulambe in Phalombe, tell Dialogue Earth they never saw<\/a> support that was promised. Aid, they claim, was distributed sporadically \u2013 and stopped coming altogether months after the cyclone. Some say they only received two 10kg bags of maize in two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recovery or requiem?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If disaster is a sudden, vicious thief, recovery in Malawi has proven a slow and unreliable friend. In many areas, it simply hasn\u2019t arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Yohane, from Nkhulambe, now lives under a donated tarpaulin held up by scavenged wood and stubborn hope. \u201cWe work in other people\u2019s gardens to eat,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have pots to cook with. I\u2019m tired of surviving. I want to live again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in Nkhulambe, Irene Chiwaya surveys her five-hectare ancestral farm \u2013 once the pride of generations. Now, it\u2019s dead earth. \u201cIt won\u2019t even grow grass,\u201d she says. Her children, once school-bound, now stay home. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford uniforms or fees. We are trapped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Ireen Chiwaya\u2019s five-hectare farm in Nkhulambe was badly damaged by the cyclone (Image: Jack McBrams)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Blantyre, where 85 people perished and 134 were seriously injured, communities clinging<\/a> to the steep slopes of Soche Mountain were equally devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lost everything,\u201d says Lucy Chikapa, a 30-year-old mother of two and resident of Chilobwe. \u201cA whole family \u2013 the Likomas, nine people \u2013 were taken by the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A case for compensation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Climatologist Friederike Otto told<\/a> Table Briefings that climate change probably increased the likelihood of Cyclone Freddy, as well as the amount of rainfall during the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the longest-lasting storm ever seen in our region. The amount of rainfall it brought was unprecedented,\u201d says climatologist Sosten Chiotha, who is director of the NGO Leadership for Environment and Development in Southern and Eastern Africa. He says Cyclone Freddy was not a fluke, but a forewarning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malawi, along with Mozambique and Madagascar, are neighbours with similar vulnerabilities<\/a> related to climate change, including susceptibility to cyclones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiotha champions the \u201closs and damage\u201d debate at global climate summits like COP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdaptation is not enough anymore. Even communities that planted trees or adopted climate-smart farming were wiped out. The scale of Freddy shows why we need real compensation, not just advice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warns more storms are coming \u2013 and they may be worse \u2013 but geography isn\u2019t the only culprit. \u201cDeforestation, unplanned settlements, farming on steep slopes \u2013 these are human decisions making things worse,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVegetation cover needs to improve. Dams must be built. Settlements should be guided by flood risk. Right now, we are building our homes on trapdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope, unearthed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet, in the cracked earth and bent door frames of broken houses, hope persists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not beggars,\u201d says village headman Nkhulambe. \u201cWe\u2019re farmers. Give us hoes and seeds, and we\u2019ll rebuild ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the rainy season approaches in November, clouds gather above Mulanje. This time, they carry not only the threat of landslides, but the burden of unkept promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether Malawi will finally find the courage \u2013 and the resources \u2013 to protect its most vulnerable remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khamula acknowledges the gaps and calls for renewed urgency and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecovery from Cyclone Freddy is not just about rebuilding infrastructure,\u201d he tells Dialogue Earth. \u201cIt\u2019s about restoring dignity, giving children back their classrooms, farmers back their fields, and mothers back their peace of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As climate change intensifies, Malawi, like many poor countries on the frontlines of global warming, finds itself shouldering a crisis it did little to create. Its people are paying the highest price \u2013 in lives, livelihoods, and lost futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years on, the cyclone has faded from international headlines. But in Malawi\u2019s floodplains, its legacy lives on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000789,"featured_media":60090346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[519,20000192,543],"hashtags":[],"country":[50041571],"class_list":["post-60090273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-climate-impacts","tag-disasters","tag-extreme-weather","country-malawi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018I\u2019m tired of surviving. I want to live again\u2019: Cyclone Freddy\u2019s legacy in Malawi | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two years on, the cyclone has faded from international headlines. 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