Tropical storm kills 17 in Madagascar:

At least 17 people died when a tropical storm hit eastern Madagascar over the weekend, authorities said.

More than 6,000 people were displaced by the storm, called Eliakim, the National Office of Risk and Disaster Management said in a statement late on Sunday.

The tropical storm hit the island’s Mananara region, 635 km north-east of Antananarivo, on Saturday night and had a wind speed of 85 km per hour and gusts of 120 km per hour. 

In January, the island’s disaster management office said Tropical Cyclone Ava killed 51 people. 

This has raised concerns since most African countries are yet to enter into the rainy season. The natural disaster follows another kind where 16 people were killed by lightning in Rwanda. A Ghanaian student of Ofori Panin Senior High School also suffered the same demise.

Source: Reuters