ANTANANARIVO, Nov 25, 2023 (AFP) – Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has won another term in office, the election commission said on Saturday, but his victory in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates is already facing legal challenges. Rajoelina won 58.95 percent of the votes cast in the November 16 presidential election first round, according to the results presented by the poll body which need to be validated by the Constitutional Court. These results must […]
Tag: Madagascar
Cyclone Freddy returns killing 70 in Malawi, Mozambique
by Jack McBRAMS Cyclone Freddy, packing powerful winds and torrential rain, killed at least 70 people in Malawi and Mozambique on its return to southern Africa’s mainland, authorities said Monday. More than 60 bodies were found during the day in southern Malawi where heavy downpours triggered flooding, according to the Red Cross. “Sixty-six people have died in Malawi, 93 injured and 16 people are missing due to Tropical Cyclone Freddy,” tweeted the humanitarian organisation, which […]
Freddy may break tropical cyclone record: UN
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | by Robin MILLARD Tropical storm Freddy is on track to break the record as the longest-lasting cyclone of its kind, the United Nations said Friday, as the killer storm was set to hit Mozambique once again. “Freddy is continuing its incredible and dangerous journey,” Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, told reporters in Geneva. Freddy has been a named tropical cyclone for 33 days since developing off […]
Long lost Madagascar songbird seen again in wild
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse Paris, France (AFP) — Conservationists were celebrating Wednesday the first sightings in 24 years of the dusky tetraka, a yellow-throated songbird native to Madagascar for which ornithologists had feared the worst. A expedition to remote regions of the island nation confirmed two recent sightings of the bird. Scientists also learned something about the petite bird’s behaviour that could help explain how it escaped notice for so long, even if it […]
Cyclone Freddy death toll rises to 7 in Madagascar
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — The death toll from Cyclone Freddy in Madagascar climbed to seven on Thursday as the winds that have battered the Indian Ocean for days started to ease before hitting Mozambique. Madagascar’s government revised the death toll for the island from five to seven on Thursday and said average wind speeds were now reaching 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour, with gusts of up to 90 kph. Among the victims were four […]
18 die as Madagascar police shoot at albino kidnap protesters: medic
by Laure VERNEAU Agence France-Presse ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — Eighteen people died Monday after police in Madagascar opened fire on what they called a lynch mob angered at the kidnapping of an albino child, a senior doctor told AFP. Dozens were wounded, some of them seriously. “At the moment, 18 people have died in all, nine on the spot and nine in hospital,” said doctor Tango Oscar Toky, chief physician at a hospital in southeastern […]
Cyclone Emnati lashes Madagascar
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — Cyclone Emnati overnight lashed the island nation of Madagascar, still reeling from the impact of another cyclone earlier this month, local authorities said Wednesday. The cyclone “made landfall around 2300 GMT just north of the southeastern district of Manakara,” Faly Aritiana Fabien, a senior official of the National Risk Management Office (BNGRC) told AFP. No casualties have been reported yet. The storm, which passed just north of Indian Ocean islands of […]
Humanitarian crisis feared as cyclone kills 21 in Madagascar
by Adele Dhayer Agence France Presse ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — Cyclone Batsirai swept out of Madagascar on Monday after killing 21 people, displacing 70,000 and devastating the drought-hit island’s agricultural heartland, leading the UN to warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Madagascar was already reeling from a tropical storm which killed 55 people late last month, and the latest extreme weather event came as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the continent is “bearing […]
Cyclone Batsirai kills six, displaces tens of thousands in Madagascar
by Adele Dhayer Cyclone Batsirai killed at least six people and displaced nearly 48,000 when it struck Madagascar overnight, the national disaster management agency said on Sunday. Cyclone Batsirai weakened overnight but not before wreaking havoc in the poor Indian Ocean island nation which is still reeling from a deadly tropical storm earlier this year. The eastern district of Mananjary was lashed with heavy rains and wind before the cyclone made landfall, forcing local residents […]
Cyclone Batsirai closes in on eastern Madagascar
As powerful Cyclone Batsirai closed in on eastern Madagascar on Saturday people sought shelter in more secure concrete buildings while others reinforced their roofs with large sandbags. Batsirai is expected to lash the eastern parts of the cyclone-prone Indian ocean island with powerful winds and torrential rains on Saturday. The Meteo-France weather service warned of winds of up to 260 kilometres per hour (162 miles per hour) and waves as high as 15 metres (50 […]
Deadly storm Ana strands tens of thousands in southern Africa
by Jack McBrams with Aunicio DA SILVA in Nampula Agence France-Presse LILONGWE, Malawi (AFP) – Torrential rains from deadly Tropical Storm Ana subsided on Friday leaving tens of thousands of people across three countries in southern Africa cut off by flood damage, without power and living in shelters. The death toll stood at 86 across Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi, as rescue crews battled on to access regions where roads and bridges had washed away. In […]
70 dead from Tropical Storm Ana in southern Africa
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries rose to 70 on Thursday as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of victims. Packing torrential rains, Tropical Storm Ana made landfall Monday in Madagascar before ploughing into Mozambique and Malawi. Rescue workers and authorities across the three countries were still assessing the full extent of the damage. Madagascar has reported 41 dead, […]





