Death toll from Cyclone Batsirai in Madagascar rises to 120 – state agency

Antananarivo Feb 12 (BNA): The death toll from Cyclone Patsirai in Madagascar jumped to 120 on Friday from 92 earlier this week, the state disaster relief agency said.

The cyclone hit the island in the Indian Ocean late on Saturday and hit the southeast coast before receding late on Sunday, Reuters reported.

The disaster relief agency said 87 of the dead were killed in one region, the Ekongo region in southeastern Madagascar. It said earlier this week that it was still gathering details about what happened in Ekongo.

The latest update raises the death toll from the 111 reported earlier on Friday.

The agency said the cyclone left just over 124,000 people and their homes damaged or destroyed, and another 30,000 displaced and set up camps in 108 locations.

Batsiri is the second devastating storm in Madagascar in two weeks, after Tropical Storm Anna, which killed 55 people and displaced 130,000 in a different part of the country, further north.

The island nation, with a population of nearly 30 million, was already suffering from food shortages in the south, as a result of severe and prolonged drought.

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