Cyclone Freddy wreaks havoc on southern Africa, UN provides aid.

Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has declared that nearly half of the country has been damaged by Cyclone Freddy, which has killed hundreds of people and become the longest-lasting tropical storm on record. He has asked for help from the international community and said the structural destruction was vast. The death toll in Malawi stood at 438 and families and rescuers spent the weekend digging through mud and rubble, often with their bare hands, looking for the missing. The cyclone first developed off Australia in early February and travelled almost 5,000 miles across the Indian Ocean, making landfall twice in south-east Africa, bringing torrential rains, high winds and killing more than 700 people across Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and Malawi.