UN calls for urgent aid for Madagascar after Gafilo

[senorpepr]

ANTANANARIVO (AFP) - The United Nations made an urgent appeal for international aid for Madagascar, nearly two weeks after cyclone Gafilo ripped across the Indian Ocean island state claiming at least 130 lives and leaving 193,000 homeless.

"We need to raise 8.9 million dollars immediately for three months' aid. This is an emergency appeal," said the representative of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Madagascar, Bodo Henze, speaking on behalf of the world body.

The Malagasy government had on March 8 -- the day after the storm lashed the north of the island -- called for help from the international community.

"Contrary to the norm, we are appealing to you to show solidarity... even as the cyclone is still on the island and damage assessment has not been finished," said Foreign Minister Marcel Ranjeva.

At that time, it was believed that between 55,000 and 100,000 people were homeless, according to Interior Minister General Soja. A death toll had not been established.

Some 834,000 dollars were raised following the initial appeal, the UN has said, but the funds were far from sufficient, as the toll from the storm has climbed as rescue workers have been able to reach remote villages hit by the storm.

On Monday, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said an estimated 700,000 people had been affected by the storm, with 280,000 of them needing emergency aid.

A toll for the storm issued Friday by the island's rescue services put the number of dead at 130, with 184 missing, 858 injured and 193,000 homeless.

That toll did not include 21 bodies that have washed ashore in northern Madagascar following the sinking during the cyclone of a ferry from the Comoro Islands.

Three people survived the sinking, with one of them saying she saw the ferry go down. The boat's owners have said there were 120 passengers and crew on board.

Nor did the toll include any of the 15 crewmembers of a trawler, which capsized during the storm in the mouth of the Betsiboka River, which feeds into the bay of the northwest port of Mahajanga.

Four of the boat's crew survived, and seven bodies have been found.

"From a scientific point of view, cyclone Gafilo was a major catastrophe, in the light of the geographic area and number of people affected," said OCHA official Georges Tadonki on Friday.

"The aid currently available is insufficient," he added.

"The most pressing needs are for food, logistical backing to deliver the aid, water and medicines," he said.

Gafilo ripped across northern Madagascar the weekend of March 7, its winds of up to 180 kilometers (110 miles) per hour, devastating the town of Antalaha in the northeast.

Ninety-five percent of houses were destroyed in Antalaha, and rice paddies on the outskirts of Antalaha were destroyed as was much of the vanilla crop.

Northeast Madagascar, where Gafilo first made landfall, is known as the island's vanilla triangle, with much of the world's supply of the aromatic pod being grown and processed here.

The storm lay stationary in the Mozambique Channel for two days before swirling around and crossing southern Madagascar, its winds significantly weaker and inflicting little damage before heading out to sea on Thursday last week.