Cyclone Freddy death toll in Malawi, Mozambique passes 100

Al Jazeera :
More than 100 people have been killed in Malawi and Mozambique after Cyclone Freddy, packing powerful winds and torrential rain, returned to Southern Africa’s mainland.
Freddy barrelled through Southern Africa at the weekend for the second time in a few weeks, making a comeback after it first hit in late February.
Malawi bore the brunt, counting at least 99 deaths after mudslides overnight washed away houses and sleeping occupants.
Another 134 people were injured and 16 are reported missing. Malawi’s commercial capital Blantyre recorded 85 deaths.
“We expect the number to rise,” Charles Kalemba, a commissioner at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, told a press conference on Monday.
In neighbouring Mozambique, at least 10 people died and 14 were wounded.
The Mozambique National Institute for Disaster Management said the fallout from the storm’s second landfall in the country was worse than expected.
According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, Freddy, which formed off northwestern Australia in the first week of February, was set to become what is believed to be the longest lasting tropical cyclone on record. It crossed the entire southern Indian Ocean and blasted Madagascar from February 21 before reaching Mozambique on February 24.
Following what meteorologists describe as a “rare” loop trajectory, Freddy then headed back towards Madagascar before moving once more towards Mozambique.
The last cyclones to cross the entire southern Indian Ocean were Leon-Eline and Hudah in 2000.
The UN said more than 11,000 people were affected by the storm.