Cyclones Batsiraï and Emnati

Context

Cyclone Batsirai made landfall on the east coast of Madagascar on Saturday 5 February, with registered wind gusts of up to 235 km/h. Less than three weeks after, on 22 February, another powerful cyclone, Emnati, hit the same area. Thousands of people have been impacted and displaced.

Rapid Response

Following several days of close coordination with the Madagascan emergency response bodies, a TSF team arrived on Thursday 10th February in Mananjary, on the East coast of the country.  Here, nine out of ten houses have been impacted by the cyclone, the hospital is not operational and another five health centres have been destroyed. “As a first step, we contributed to connect the World Food Program’s (WFP) office, in order to facilitate the coordination of their relief operations. In parallel, other TSF experts joined the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams to provide telecom support and connectivity at their coordination centre,” explains Florent Bervas, Head of Mission for TSF in Madagascar. This connection is also used by several humanitarian organisations active in the affected area such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Médecins du Monde (MDM) or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “We always appreciate TSF’s support during emergencies because we know we can count on TSF’s professionalism. They make sure we can offer a reliable connection for all humanitarian partners to be able to work and share information about the situation, to advocate and be able to respond to the needs of the affected population,” explains Silke Banuelos Kuang, Team Leader for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Mananjary. 

In parallel, TSF carried out a total of 14 humanitarian calling operations covering different areas of the town, in order to offer to all the victims the possibility to make a call. “I’m very happy I’ve been able to contact my family after the cyclone because our house has been completely destroyed. I could also receive information from their side since they were also impacted by the cyclone,” Julienne, 79, victim of Cyclone Batsirai, explains. These calls allowed several people like Julienne to inform their relatives about their situation after the cyclone, to ask financial help to reconstruct their houses and to organise with their families a new beginning after having lost everything. Beyond the psychological support, which remains essential in the face of such destruction, TSF’s mission is the only way for these people to ask and receive the concrete help they need to rebuild their lives in the city, or move to another place within the country. 

In coordination with the local authorities, the national disaster management agency (BNGRC), UNDAC and the other humanitarian organisations on the ground, TSF will be continuing its support to the humanitarian coordination and the people affected by the cyclone.