Malawi assessing damages of 5.4 magnitude earthquake

Malawians citizens in some districts of the southern region and some parts of the central region were on Thursday around 11 o’clock in the morning, disturbed after a 5.4 magnitude earthquake struck the country.

Reports reaching Nyasa Times indicate that some primary school learners in Nsanje have been injured mostly in Senior Chief Tengani’s area.

Nsanje Ditrict Commissioner(DC) Reinghard Chavula confirmed the reports of damages but said a full assessment of the damage was yet to be carried out.

“We are yet to confirm the households that have been affected and how many they are,” Chavula said.

In Chikwawa, civil servants at Chikwawa District Council panicked as they did not know what was happening. The council building was shaking and workers were restless as they started screaming and running out of their offices as the tremor occurred.

Citizens from Makhwira, Mazongoza and Nchalo in the district confirmed of the disturbance, saying it was a scaring experience on Thursday morning.

In Balaka, people at Andiamo Campus and Balaka Boma say the tremor took about two minutes and it caused some unrest in different offices but no damage was reported.

Deputy Director of the Department of Geology, Kondwani Dombola, confirmed the occurrence of the earth tremor.

“We are working on our data to establish the cause of the tremor using our equipment. For now, we can only confirm that the earthquake occurred but for damages and exact number of districts affected, we are yet to gather that information,” said Dombola.

Dombola said “People must keep calm.”

He said  the 10 kilometre depth earthquake, which originated from a fault in Mozambique, hit most parts  of Nsanje north east and affected most districts in the  Southern Region, including Chikwawa, Blantyre, Zomba, Chiradzulu, Machinga and Mangochi.

Dombola also confirmed that the quake was felt in some parts of Central and Northern regions.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma)  Director of Response and Recovery Paul Kalilombe  said in a statement that  “verification and further assessement are underway to etsbalish the extend of the damage.”

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