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Madagascar: ‘Overwhelming’ destruction, surging needs after back-to-back cyclones – WFP
Some 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia brought heavy rains and flooding to Madagascar, cyclone Gezani has left the island’s main port in ruins, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters from Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, WFP Country Director Tania Goossens said some 400,000 people are facing acute humanitarian needs after the island was hit by back-to-back cyclones in the space of three weeks. Ms. Goossens recently returned from a mission to the port city Toamasina (also known as Tamatave), the country’s second largest urban centre, where Gezani made landfall on Tuesday evening with wind gusts of up to 250 kilometres per hour.
“The scale of the destruction is really overwhelming,” Ms. Goossens insisted.
She said that according to the authorities 80 per cent of the city has suffered damage and that it is “running on roughly five per cent electricity at the moment.”
“There's no water and one of WFP’s warehouses and our office was also completely destroyed during the cyclone,” she added.
Assessments are ongoing but to date the authorities report 38 deaths and 374 people injured.
The UN food agency official said that many families have left their homes and that there was “severe” damage to buildings, businesses, schools and the city’s hospital.
“During my visit, I saw families trying to recover the little that was left of their home,” she recounted. “Many are spending the night in homes where the roofs have been torn off.”
Uprooted trees and debris across the city are blocking streets, Ms. Goossens said, and fuel is difficult to come by.
“Families are telling us that they have lost everything,” she stressed. “Many are sheltering in damaged homes or temporary sites and uncertain about how they can access their next meal.”
In addition to the urgent need for food Ms. Goossens highlighted humanitarians’ concerns about water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, as a lack of clean water and damaged infrastructure raise the risk of disease outbreaks. She also mentioned “rising protection concerns for vulnerable groups” such as women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities.
In anticipation of the shock WFP and partners have been providing cash assistance to the most vulnerable households allowing them to purchase some food and better prepare before the storm struck.
The UN food agency is now mobilizing its “last food stocks,” which will be distributed in coordination with national disaster relief teams, Ms. Goossens explained.
However, the needs on the ground exceed WFP’s capacity and the agency is calling for urgent donor support.
The latest disaster “comes on top of an already very critical food security situation,” Ms. Goossens said, as already before the back-to-back cyclones 1.57 million people across the country were food insecure, including 84,000 facing emergency levels of hunger, according to the latest data from the IPC, a UN-backed global food security monitoring system.
“We're also in the peak of the lean season here in Madagascar and funding shortfalls remain alarming… Our lean season response as well as cyclone response faces a $18 million gap over the next six months,” the WFP official warned.
“We will need… sustained support over the coming months to help people recover, to rebuild and strengthen their resilience against further shocks,” she added. “In fact, we are in at the start of the cyclone season. So, we are also concerned that this is only just the beginning.”
-Ends-
STORY Madagascar Cyclone Gezani - WFP
TRT: 4:25”
SOURCE: UNTV CH and WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 FEBRUARY 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND AND 11-12 FEBRUARY 2026, TOAMASINA (TAMATAVE), MADAGASCAR – credit WFP
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Medium shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “Just in the space of three weeks, Madagascar has been hit by back-to-back cyclones. So right now, according to initial estimates, we have about 400,000 people that are facing acute needs because of these back-to-back shocks.”
4. Medium over-the-shoulder shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “I've just come back from the cyclone-hit Tamatave. So this is where Gezani made landfall Tuesday evening. Tamatave is Madagascar's second-largest city and the scale of the destruction is really overwhelming.”
6. Medium-wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens, journalists in the Press room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “The authorities have reported that 80 per cent of the city has suffered damage. The city's running on roughly 5 per cent electricity at the moment. There's no water and in fact one of WFP’s warehouses and our office was also completely destroyed during the cyclone.”
8. Medium-wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “Families have left their homes and we saw many buildings, businesses and schools, even the hospital having suffered severe damages. During my visit, I saw families trying to recover the little that was left of their home. Many are spending actually the night in homes where the roofs have been torn off. And this at a time when already yesterday we experienced rain. Rain was incoming. There's uprooted trees and debris across the city. This is blocking streets and fuel is also difficult to come by.”
10. Wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens, journalists in the Press room.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “In addition to the urgent need for food, we are concerned about water, sanitation, hygiene conditions, as a lack of clean water and damaged infrastructure raises the risk of disease outbreaks. They're also rising protection concerns for vulnerable groups, particularly for women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities.”
12. Medium-wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens, journalists in the Press room.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “Families are telling us that they have lost everything. Many are sheltering, as I mentioned, in damaged homes or temporary sites and uncertain about how they can access their next meal.”
14. Medium-wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference, speaker on screens, journalists in the Press room.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tania Goossens, Country Director for Madagascar, World Food Programme (WFP): “We will need, of course, sustained support over the coming months to help people recover, to rebuild and strengthen their resilience against further shocks. And in fact, we are in at the start of the cyclone season. So we are also of course concerned that this is only just the beginning.”
16. WFP B-Roll: 11-12 FEBRUARY 2026, TOAMASINA, MADAGASCAR – credit WFP:
- Wide and medium shots: destruction due to Cyclone Gezani shot in Toamasina (also known as Tamatave) on 11 and 12 February.
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The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
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Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
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“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
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Preparing for moving baselines
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ends