Cyclone Batsirai left Madagascar this Monday morning at 7 a.m. (local time) to exit in the Gulf of Mozambique.
According to the latest report from the Office of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC), 20 people have been killed and more than 55,000 people have had to leave their homes.
At least 10 dead and nearly 50,000 displaced in Madagascar.
Cyclone Batsirai hit the south of the Big Island hard, already hit by storm Ana two weeks ago.
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— Jienel Kambala (@JienelSpotlight) February 7, 2022
The cyclone which first hit a 150 km long, sparsely populated and agricultural coastal area, then tracked west inland.
Intense rains and winds that sometimes exceeded 165 km/h caused rivers to flood.
They have completely devastated the rice fields of Madagascar's "rice bowl" in the center of the country, according to UNICEF.
02/07 3:15 p.m.: This afternoons Meteo France outlook for post-tropical depression 'Batsirai'.
This is the last post as it no longer poses a threat to southern Africa.
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— Dullstroom Weather Station (@Dullsweather) February 7, 2022
"The impact of the cyclone does not end today, it will last several months, especially on the agricultural impact," warned UNICEF.
Madagascar had already been hit a month earlier by a deadly tropical storm, Ana, which had killed 55 people on the island and tens of thousands of victims.
“The roofs of several hundred schools” blown off
The capital Antananarivo and the main port of the country Tamatave (north-east) were this time spared by the cyclone, which explains a human toll below what was feared by the authorities and NGOs, who counted on 500,000 people affected and 140,000 displaced.
"The roofs of several hundred schools and health centers have been blown off" in the affected areas, underlines UNICEF, for whom the toll remains high on an island where 77% of the population lives below the poverty line and affected by a severe drought in the South, which precipitated more than a million people into acute malnutrition with pockets of famine.
In addition, in its path, Batsirai destroyed the main road linking the island from north to south, "which will make it difficult to provide access and reinforcement in certain villages including in drought areas", added the president. Unicef stressing that "Madagascar is in constant humanitarian crisis".