EMMANUEL GIROUD, Sambava | Monday 1.40pm
FRENCH helicopters came to the aid of cyclone-hit Madagascar — where 22000 people are said to be in urgent need — flying missions on Monday to seek out isolated communities in the northeast.
Pilots from the carrier Jeanne d’Arc were expected to start aid drops later on Monday or early on Tuesday in inaccessible, mountainous area between the towns of Sambava, Andapa and Antalaha, spokesman Stephane Catta of the French embassy said.
The Jeanne d’Arc and frigate Georges Leygues docked on Monday at Antsiranana in the far north of the large Indian Ocean island nation, bringing much needed airborne assistance for communities cut off by storm damage and floods.
Madagascar was hit first by cyclone Eline in mid-February and then by Gloria at the beginning of March. The severe damage to swathes of the island was in part overshadowed by devastation wreaked on Mozambique on mainland Africa.
Between them, the tropical storms killed at least 137 people in Madagascar, according to early official estimates, and wiped out 80% of the crops in hard-hit northeastern zones, including both subsistence rice and maize and export crops such as vanilla and cloves.
On first assessments, 22000 people were reported to be in need of urgent humanitarian aid, with at least 2000 people believed to be totally stranded in isolated northeastern communities.
UN officials estimated that 10000 people were cut off by flooding in the central highland region of the island around the capital Antananarivo.
The spectre of disease also hung over the battered island as flood waters receded.
A cholera outbreak which was first reported in March 1999 has killed more than 1,200 people in the past year, and there were fears that efforts to prevent an epidemic could be hampered by the devastation caused by Eline and Gloria. — AFP