Help sought for storm-hit Madagascar

NGOs called for concrete actions including climate financing for the most vulnerable as Madagascar was expected to endure a strong cyclone, following three major tropical storms in a month that have already killed nearly 200 people and left a trail of destruction on properties.

Cyclone Emnati was expected to make a landfall late on Tuesday in areas around the eastern area of Mahanoro and the south of Madagascar, with strong winds of up to 220 kilometers per hour.

Yolande Wright, the global director of child poverty and climate at Save the Children, an independent organization for children in need, termed the successive cyclones as a perfect example of the multilayered, intersecting crises of climate and poverty.

"100 days since the Glasgow Climate Pact was made at COP 26, the devastating situation in Madagascar－and elsewhere－should stand as an illustration of why the leaders of high-income countries and historical emitters need to urgently step up actions on all fronts－including climate financing for the most vulnerable," Wright said in a statement on Monday.

The first seasonal Cyclone Ana hit the eastern part of Madagascar on Jan 22, killing at least 58 people in the capital Antananarivo, after traditional houses collapsed while others were swept by landslides, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The storm displaced 71,000 people across seven regions in the country.

Fifteen days later Cyclone Batsirai made a landfall in the east central coast of the country, killing 121 people.

The storm displaced 29,000 people and destroyed 19,000 homes.

On Feb 15, another tropical weather system, tropical storm Dumako, made landfall on the northeast coast of the country between Sainte-Marie Island and Antalaha.

The storm left 14 people dead, more than 4,300 displaced and almost 9,560 affected, according to the directorate-general for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

"Over the past few weeks, children across eastern Madagascar have had nearly everything ripped away from them. Tens of thousands have lost their homes, and 133,627 have been left with no access to education as these cyclones have torn school buildings apart," Tatiana Dasy, Save the Children's program director for Madagascar, said in a statement on Monday.

"Already, roughly 9 out of 10 people in Madagascar live below the global poverty line, and more than half of children are chronically malnourished. This country is just not prepared for these kinds of successive climate shocks."

Dasy said children in the country are facing tragedy upon tragedy, due to the drought and hunger crisis in the southern part of the country coupled with the successive tropical storms.