Nearly 70,000 inhabitants of the “Red Island” had to leave their homes damaged or destroyed by the rain and gusts of wind.
Le Monde with AFP
The Batsirai tropical cyclone has left Madagascar, Monday, February 7, leaving in its wake tens of thousands of victims, twenty deaths and the “rice attic” of the center of the ravaged country, making fear to the UN an aggravation. of the humanitarian crisis that affects the country. The large island of the Indian Ocean, which has nearly 28 million inhabitants, was already shocked by a tropical storm, Ana, who had made 55 dead at the end of January, and droughts.
According to the latest assessment of the National Risk and Disaster Management Office, twenty people were killed. Nearly 70,000 people had to leave their homes damaged or destroyed by the rain and gusts of wind, which reached 165 km / h. The United Nations Children’s Agency, UNICEF, particularly fears that many victims are minors, in a country, one of the poorest in the world, where they represent more than half of the population.
The cyclone, who had previously overflown the French island of Reunion, hit Madagascar on Saturday to Sunday on the eastern coast, in an area of 150 km long, little densely populated and agricultural. In Mananjary, his epicenter, the overwhelmed residents contemplated their ribbons city.
GREAT DRY DRYER
The cyclone was then directed to the west, in the land, causing floods that devastated the parcels of the “rice attic” of the country. The consequences of the cyclone will be felt during “several months”, especially at the “agricultural” level, warned Jean-Benoit Manhes, Deputy Representative of UNICEF in the country.
Twenty roads and seventeen bridges were cut on Monday, according to the authorities. Some of the most affected areas were cut off from the world, such as Manakara City, according to the Office of the Coordination of United Nations Humanitarian Affairs.
The capital, Antananarivo, and the main port of the country, Tamatave, have been spared, hence a lower human assessment than what was dreaded by the authorities and NGOs, which provided for almost 600,000 people affected. “The roofs of several hundred schools, health centers have been blown” in affected areas, however, adds UNICEF.
This new blow occurs while a severe drought in the South Malagasy plunged more than one million people into acute malnutrition, with pockets of famine. In his passage, Batsirai also destroyed the main road connecting North Island to the south, “which will make it difficult to supply access and reinforcement in some villages including in drought areas,” alerted Jean -Benoise Manhes.
Sunday, the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said at a summit of African leaders that the continent “suffered the worst impacts of climate warming phenomena such as droughts, floods and cyclones”. “Although they are not responsible for the cause of climate change, it is Africans who support both weight and cost,” he also emphasized.