/ 10 March 2004

Ferry still missing off Madagascar

Officials in Madagascar have had no word of a ferry carrying 113 passengers and crew since a cyclone ripped across the Indian Ocean island, killing at least 11 and making tens of thousands homeless.

An official at the northwestern port of Mahajanga, Jean Ralambo, said that the ferry reached Mahajanga bay at 5pm [2pm GMT] on Sunday but was not allowed to dock because customs officers were not on duty.

He said the boat put back out to sea, but radio contact was lost three hours later.

”We sent out an army patrol boat this morning to conduct a search. It hasn’t come back yet but we will be in radio contact this evening,” said Ralambo, adding that he hoped the ferry had found shelter on the coast.

There was also concern about six crew members of a large fishing vessel in the area, three of whose colleagues left the ship to alert authorities it was in trouble.

A rescue official in the capital said late on Tuesday that cylcone Gafilo had killed at least 11 people, four more than previously reported.

”The toll this evening is 11 dead and 18 missing,” said the official, Farah Rasoarimamonjy.

”Eight people died in the eastern Tamatave province, two in Mahajanga province and in Diego Suarez,” the offical added.

She added that 18 people were missing in Ambanja in the northwest.

The northeastern town of Antalaha was almost entirely destroyed by Gafilo, its winds swirling at 120kph with gusts of up to 180kph, officials in the region said.

According to an initial damage assessment report released by Care International aid agency late Monday, ”95% of homes” were destroyed in the coastal town where Gafilo touched land as it began its devastating western sweep across the north.

Many of the town’s inhabitants were injured when their houses collapsed, Care said.

”A Care International plane left on Tuesday morning for Antalaha and helicopters will try to land this afternoon in the town of Maroantsetra, very hard to reach because of flooding,” said rescue service chief Randrianarivelo.

Rice paddies on the outskirts of Antalaha were destroyed as was much of the vanilla crop. Northeast Madagascar is known as the island’s vanilla triangle, with much of the aromatic pod being grown and processed there.

”There will be no production this year,” Ibrahim Dasy, head of Care in Antalaha, said late on Monday.

”The situation is catastrophic. It looks like it did after Cyclone Hudah in April 2000.”

An official delegation led by Prime Minister Jacques Sylla visited Antalaha late on Monday, while another team comprising the interior, defence and health ministers went to the nearby coastal town of Sambava to evaluate the damage and needs of the local population there.

”The people mainly need construction material and food,” said Dasy.

An AFP correspondent in Sambava said the cyclone had done little damage to the town. That report was confirmed by a local official.

”The town was flooded on Sunday, but the level of seawater then subsided and people have already returned to their homes,” said Sambava town official Jacob Nazir.

The Malagasy weather service warned on Tuesday that, as predicted, the storm, which had moved offshore and was stationary in the Mozambique Channel late on Monday, was on its way back to Madagascar.

”As we predicted yesterday (Monday) the cyclone has done a U-turn and begun heading in a south-southeasterly direction,” the head of the meteorological service said on Tuesday.

”We are now certain that the cyclone will return to Madagascar on Wednesday morning, between the towns of Morondava and Tulear,” on the southwest coast,” said weather chief Alain Razafimahazo.

”But the cyclone, which was very strong to begin with, is now no more than a moderate tropical storm. Its winds are not very violent, averaging 95kph with gusts at 120kph,” he said.

At noon [9am] on Tuesday, the storm was 250km offshore Morondava, said Razafimahazo. – Sapa-AFP