ANTANANARIVO - Cyclone Emnati, barrelling towards Madagascar, is expected to hit late on Tuesday with wind speeds of up to 170km/h, the government's meteorological department said, making it the fourth major storm to slam into the Indian Ocean island in a month.
Madagascar's National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said nearly 275 000 people were in the cyclone's path. Tens of thousands of people have already been made homeless in this year's cyclone season.
The national meteorological office said in its bulletin that the cyclone would make landfall on the eastern coast of the island late on Tuesday, continue through the central highlands and move out to sea in the Mozambique Channel on Wednesday.
The island is still reeling from the effects of Cyclone Batsirai, which hit on February 5, killing 124 and damaging or destroying the homes of 124 000 people. Around 30 000 more people were displaced.
Last week, tropical storm Dumako killed at least 14 people and displaced 4 323 people, the disaster relief agency said.
The agency said the cyclone had left just over 124 000 people with their homes damaged or destroyed, and some 30 000 more displaced and camping at 108 sites.
Batsirai was Madagascar's second destructive storm in two weeks, after tropical storm Ana and displaced 130 000 in a different area of the country, further north.
The island nation, with a population of nearly 30 million, was already struggling with food shortages in the south, a consequence of a severe and prolonged drought.
Aid group Save the Children said Batsirai, Dumako and another storm, Ana, have destroyed just over 2 500 classrooms, preventing 133 600 children from attending school.
Reuters