Freddy made landfall with sustained winds of nearly 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour), causing “severe damage and cutting off children and families from critical services,” UNICEF, which provides rapid response to disaster-struck areas, said in a statement.
After passing the port town of Quelimane in Mozambique Sunday, the storm continued inland towards the southern tip of neighboring Malawi, satellite data showed.
Destructive winds and heavy rainfall brought down trees and damaged rooftops in both countries, with Malawi having borne the brunt of the inexhaustible storm.
State television station MBC said on Monday at least 99 people died in Malawi, raising the death toll from the 56 reported earlier in the day.
However on Tuesday the toll nearly doubled with authorities saying that 190 people had been killed.
“The death toll has risen from 99… to 190, with 584 injured and 37 reported missing,” Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs said in a statement.
President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of emergency for the southern region of the country, where the worst effects had been felt, on Monday.