Churches, NGOs call for emergency aid for Malawi quake victims

Churches in Malawi have offered special prayers and called on their members to aid thousands of people made homeless by a series of earthquakes that have hit the northern region of Karonga, bordering Tanzania.

The session clerk for St James Church of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Blantyre Synod, Raban Banda, said during a service, “As a church, let us remember our friends in Karonga with prayers. But not only that, we would like to request donations of tents, plastic sheets, kitchen utensils, blankets and clothes so that we can send them to our friends who have lost property due to the earthquake.”

Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs has described the situation in Karonga, as “pathetic and sad” and has also appealed for urgent relief items.

“We urgently need big tents for families, for houses are virtually inhabitable,” Lilian Ng’oma, the Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, said from Karonga, adding “We are appealing to the international community for assistance.”

Some tents, courtesy of the Malawi Red Cross Society and Ng’oma’s department, have been pitched but, according to Karonga District Commissioner Gesten Macheka, they are a far cry to the required quantity.

“We need at least 48,000 tents to cater for the 270,000 people in the district,” he said.

Macheka said 1,111 houses crumbled following the earthquake, while some 3,565 more have huge cracks and may fall any time, therefore it is risky to enter them.

Several schools have also been destroyed, forcing students to abandon classes.

“We are still urging people to avoid sleeping in their houses because the situation is still unstable,” said Macheka.

Karonga, which is growing rapidly due to a multi-million-dollar uranium mine project by the Australian multi-nation – Paladin Africa – resembled a village over-run by invading troops.

People who are yet to get tents are staying in the open, while water was gushing from the ground through broken pipes and sewers.

In some areas, there were no standing houses.

Karonga District Health Officer James Mpunga said close to 300 people were treated for varying degrees of injuries from broken bones to skin lacerations on Monday and 63 of them are still on admission at Karonga District Hospital.

“We are still receiving more patients from outlaying areas,” Mpunga said.

The death toll still remained three in the wake of Sunday’s earthquake which recorded a magnitude of 6.0 on the Ritchter Scale.

An earlier one that measured 5.9 on the Ritchter Scale also killed a child.

Ng’oma, the Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, said apart from the tents people also urgently need food, clean water and medical supplies.

“We fear an outbreak of diarhearal diseases because this is rainy season and there are no abolution facilities to cater for the displaced people,” he said.

Karonga has been hit by a series of earthquakes and after-shocks since 6 December, while tremours also shook the district Sunday night.–(Additional reporting by Pana, pictures by Simon Msowoya, Nyasa Times) 

Tagged with: earthquake, Gasten Macheka, Karonga, Lilian Ng'oma

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