“A very serious threat to the area”, the powerful cyclone Batsirai, accompanied by violent winds and heavy rains, hit the Mananjary region in Madagascar on Saturday evening, the second storm to hit the island in a few weeks.

"I confirm that Batsirai hit Mananjary around 8 p.m. local time" (6 p.m. in Paris), Lovandrainy Ratovoharisoa, a local meteorologist, told AFP.

After pouring torrential rain for two days on the French island of Reunion, Batsirai made landfall in the Mananjary district in eastern Madagascar.

A little earlier, the weather service of Madagascar had warned that it would then be "at the stage of a tropical cyclone, even intense", with a "forecast wind of 165 km / h", and that "significant and widespread damage" were to fear ".

Fear of "a major crisis" to come

Météo France for its part evoked "a very serious threat to the area" and winds expected "at more than 200 or even 250 km / h in gusts at the level of the point of impact".

The waves could reach 10 to 15 meters and the heavy rains “could then extend over part of the southern half of Madagascar”.

The inhabitants were preparing to cope with the means at their disposal on the island, one of the poorest countries in the world, already hit by tropical storm Ana in January, and swept since Friday by the wind and continuous rain.

Ana, which had also affected Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, had killed a hundred people – including 56 in Madagascar – and tens of thousands of victims.

The impact of Cyclone Batsirai in Madagascar is expected to be "considerable", including in areas still recovering from Storm Ana, a spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) warned on Friday. UN, Jens Laerke.

The director of the World Food Program (WFP) for Madagascar, Pasqualina Di Sirio, said she anticipated "a major crisis" on the big island, where the cyclone could affect more than 600,000 people, including 150,000 displaced.

“We are very nervous,” she told reporters by videoconference.

4.4 million people at risk

Search and rescue teams have been placed on alert, stocks of supplies have been prepared and planes are ready to intervene in support of the humanitarian response.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) estimates that around 4.4 million people in total are at risk in one way or another.

“Malagasy Red Cross teams and partners are on alert and deployed to communities to warn them of the approaching storm, while emergency stocks are moved to facilitate the storm. access, explained its secretary general Andoniaina Ratsimamanga.The teams are also trying with the government to set up emergency accommodation centres.

Every year during the hurricane season (from November to April), about ten storms or cyclones cross the south-west of the Indian Ocean, from east to west.

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After Reunion, Cyclone Batsirai is heading towards Madagascar

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  • Severe weather

  • Madagascar

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