LAZARUS CHAKWERA

Authorities in southern Malawi say a 1-year-old child died and 23 people are missing and feared dead after a hippopotamus charged into and capsized a canoe.

Authorities are still getting to grips with the scale of Cyclone Freddy’s destruction in Malawi and Mozambique since late Saturday, with over 370 people confirmed dead and several hundreds still displaced or missing.

After four days of destructive wind and rain, local communities and relief workers are now dealing with the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy which has killed more than 250 people and displaced tens of thousands of others across Malawi and Mozambique and may still cause further damage.

The devastating Tropical Cyclone Freddy which has ripped through southern Africa in a rare second landfall has killed at least 219 people in Malawi and Mozambique since Saturday night, with the death toll expected to continue to rise.

A health worker takes oxygen cylinders to COVID-19 wards at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. Malawi faces a resurgence of COVID-19 that is overwhelming the southern African country where a presidential residence and a national stadium have been turned into field hospitals in efforts to save lives. A 300-bed field hospital at Bingu National Stadium has begun admitting patients. Another 300-bed field hospital has been opened at a youth center in Blantyre, the country's largest city. “Although in my six months in office we set up 400 national treatment units, the current wave of infections has completely overwhelmed these facilities."

Malawi Congress Party supporters celebrate after party leader Lazarus Chakwera was announced the winner of Tuesday's election rerun in Blantyre, Malawi, Saturday, June 27, 2020. Chakwera is Malawi's sixth president after winning the historic election held last week, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has resulted in the defeat of an incumbent leader. Following a hard-fought campaign, Chakwera urged national reconciliation in his inaugural speech in the capital, Lilongwe, and spoke directly to supporters of defeated incumbent president Peter Mutharika. The Malawi Human Right Commission, one of the observers, endorsed the the rerun election as peaceful and transparent. The defeated incumbent Mutharika criticized the rerun election as the worst in Malawis history but he urged the country to move on peacefully speaking to the media in Blantyre on Saturday.

LILONGWE Malawis president on Saturday called the historic re-run of the presidential election the worst in Malawis history but urged the country to move on peacefully as it awaits official results of a vote the opposition is poised to win. Meanwhile, members of the Presidential Guard went to provide security for opposition candidate Lazarus Chakwera, who led in the results. A court overturned the original election last year won by Mutharika, citing widespread irregularities including the use of correction fluid on ballots. It was just the second time in Africa that a court has overturned a presidential election, following a ruling on Kenyas vote in 2017. The Constitutional Court on Feb. 3 unanimously ordered that the vote be held again, citing widespread, systematic and grave evidence of irregularities and vote tampering.