Sharjah24 – AFP: The death toll from Tropical Cyclone Batsirai has risen to 92 in Madagascar, authorities said Wednesday, as humanitarian organisations ramped up aid efforts with more than 110,000 people in need of emergency assistance.
The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) released data from the hardest-hit regions revealing that 71 of the dead were in Ikongo district, near the east coast of the Indian Ocean island nation.
BNGRC director general Paolo Emilio Raholinarivo said that Batsirai, which made landfall on the weekend, had left 112,000 people needing emergency assistance and forced 61,000 from their homes.
"It's devastation here," said Brunelle Razafintsiandrofa, a lawmaker from Ikongo who spoke to AFP by phone.
"Most of the victims died after their homes collapsed."
Many NGOs and UN agencies have begun to deploy resources and teams to help the victims of the cyclone which brought heavy rain and winds of 165 kilometres (102 miles) per hour.
France sent 60 emergency workers to help set up facilities for purifying drinking water, and to fly drones to assess damage in areas that are difficult to reach even at the best of times.
The tropical cyclone hit Madagascar on Saturday night, on a 150-kilometre long, sparsely populated and agricultural eastern coastal area.
As the cyclone moved inland, it caused flooding that ravaged rice fields in the country's central "breadbasket", raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
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