Nearly 80 killed in Madagascar Cyclone

Antananarivo – Cyclone Enawo that tore through the East African island of Madagascar last week has killed 78 people.

A quarter of a million of people were displaced from their homes, 18 are listed as missing and 250 as injured, the National Bureau for Risk and Catastrophe Management (BNGRC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Storm Enawo slammed into the northeast of the island on March 7, packing gusts of up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour and delivering drenching rain.

The cyclone was the most powerful to strike the island since 2012, according to the Red Cross.

Vanilla producers on the tropical island of Madagascar say the cyclone has also damaged around 30 per cent of the crop in the world’s biggest producer.