CYCLONE KILLS 29, DISPLACES THOUSANDS IN MADAGASCAR

The Tropical Cyclone Ava passed through Madagascar on Friday and Saturday, hitting mostly the eastern part of the island with wind speeds of between 140-190 kph.
The cyclone killed at least 29 people and injured three others while two people were reported missing, authorities said on Monday.

"The provisional report of cyclone Ava hitting Madagascar (shows) 29 people were killed," Melisa Venance, communications officer of the National Office of Risk and Disaster Management, said.

The administrative region of Haute Matsiatra, located 400 km south of Antananarivo, said that among those killed were eight people from a family who had been at a funeral vigil on Sunday when their house was hit by a landslide.

“The bodies were searched for all night, and the corpses of eight people, including an 11-month-old baby, were found under rubble on Monday morning,” the post said.

The National Office of Risk and Disaster Management had declared at least six dead early on Monday before slowly rising in the course of the day, and stated that more than 13,000 people were displaced by the cyclone, while more than 16,000 pupils had classes suspended until Thursday, due to flooding and risk of landslides.

Back in March 2017, Cyclone Enawo struck Madagascar, killing at least 78 people on the north eastern coast. Enawo damaged around 30% of the crop in the world's biggest vanilla producer, which account for nearly half of the world's crop.