Cyclone Emnati makes landfall in Madagascar

Cyclone Emnati made landfall on Tuesday night in Madagascar, which has been hit by several tropical storms and a cyclone in the past month, local authorities said.

The cyclone made landfall around 23:00 GMT a little north of the district of Manakara (southeast), said to AFP Faly Aritiana Fabien, of the National Office of Risk Management (BNGRC). No toll has yet been established. The disturbance, which passed off Mauritius and Reunion in the Indian Ocean, arrived weakened on the eastern coast of Madagascar, with winds averaging 100 km/h and gusts of 140 km/h. The latest bulletin from Meteo-Madagascar warns of heavy rains and flooding risks with heavy seas along the southern and southeastern coasts. The UN agencies declared the day before to be prepared for the worst. In early February, Cyclone Batsirai killed at least 121 people, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated crops.

 

Thousands of people are still homeless. In January, tropical storm Ana had already killed about 100 people in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Emnati was heading southwest in the morning. According to forecasts, the cyclone should leave the island through the Mozambique Channel on Wednesday night. More than 30,600 people have been placed in emergency shelters as a precaution. One of the poorest countries in the world, Madagascar has been hit for months by an extreme drought in a vast area of the south, which has led to acute malnutrition and pockets of famine. About ten storms or cyclones cross the southwestern Indian Ocean every year during the cyclone season, which runs from November to April.