LILONGWE, Malawi

Lightning has killed 14 people in Malawi during the past two weeks, while 8,000 homes have been destroyed as the Southeast African nation continues to receive torrential rains, disaster management officials said on Friday.

Wilson Moleni, commissioner for the state-run Department for Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA), told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe, that the deaths and destruction have been reported in various parts of the country.

“But since the country is still receiving heavy rains, there is a likelihood that the number of those dead will increase with time,” Moleni said.

He said his organization is working “tirelessly” to provide humanitarian support to those rendered homeless by the rains across the country.

“We are only appealing to the nation to take precautionary measures as the country continues to get rains so that this could avert further loss of lives,” he said.

Last year, during the same time, at least eight people were killed, and 10,000 households were rendered homeless due to heavy rains.

In 2023, Cyclone Freddy killed thousands of people in the southern region of the country and displaced millions of others. The country hasn’t yet recovered from the economic devastation of the cyclone.

Over the past two years, the country has been experiencing a severe food shortage. Last month, President Arthur Peter Mutharika declared a state of national disaster in all 26 districts of the country and appealed for urgent humanitarian support, but according to DoDMA, there is still a “massive deficit in funding” to avert the humanitarian crisis.