Attachments
TIMELINE
31 January 2026: Tropical Cyclone Fytia makes landfall as a Category 3 storm, crossing the country and affecting approximately 203,000 people across nine regions, with 61,461 people severely impacted, mostly in Boeny.
7 February 2026: The IFRC’s Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) allocates CHF 394,497 for emergency assistance to 9,500 people affected by Tropical Cyclone Fytia in Boeny.
9–11 February 2026. Tropical Cyclone Gezani is forecast to make landfall on Madagascar’s East Coast around 10–11 February 2026, with sustained winds exceeding 211 km/h. The forecast exceeds the DREF Early Action Protocol (EAP) triggers, 1.9 million people at risk. In response, the MRCS activates early actions from MDRMG025 Cyclone DREF/EAP to mitigate the impact on thousands of people.
10 February 2026: Tropical Cyclone Gezani makes landfall in Madagascar, near Toamasina (Tamatave) in the Atsinanana Region as a Category 4 cyclone, with sustained winds of 201 km/h just before landfall.
12 February 2026: The Government of Madagascar declares a state of national disaster and calls for international assistance.
1–12 February 2026. Joint assessments with the Government and partners, supported by MRCS branch volunteers, take place. Data collection feeds into BNGRC and cluster coordination mechanisms.
12 February 2026. The IFRC launches the Madagascar Cyclone Emergency Appeal with a funding ask of CHF 7.5M Federation-wide to scale-up the MRCS response to Tropical Cyclones Fytia and Gezani. The IFRC-DREF allocation was increased to CHF 1M to provide immediate support to the Emergency Appeal.
19 February 2026: The Office of the Prime Minister calls for a coordination meeting and joint field mission with the Red Cross to align on priorities and reflect the role and response of the MRCS outlined in this plan.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT
Since beginning of February 2026, Madagascar has been hit by back-to-back cyclones, cutting off communities from food, basic health services, and other essentials. Two destructive cyclones, Fytia and Gezani, struck the country within just ten days, sharply compounding an already intensifying crisis in the Country.
Tropical Cyclone (TC) Fytia formed on 28 January 2026, made landfall on 31 January, and crossed the Country, causing severe flooding and widespread displacement before weakening and moving back out to the Mozambique Channel on 2 February.
TC Gezani, which formed over the Southwest Indian Ocean on 6th February 2026, was forecasted to make landfall along Madagascar’s Eastern or North-Eastern Coastline on 10-1th February 2026, with sustained winds exceeding 212 km/h, based on advisories from the National Meteorological Agency, Météo Madagascar (DGM), and regional forecasting centres (RSMC La Réunion, GDACS, and JTWC), which closely tracked the system through updated bulletins and satellite analyses. The GDACS assigned a severity score of 2.5 (red), with an estimated 1.9 million people exposed. Forecast wind speeds reported prior to landfall surpassed the threshold set for the IFRC Cyclone Early Action Protocol (EAP) trigger (winds exceeding 118 km/h within 48-72 hours). In light of this, and in preparation for landfall, the Malagasy Red Cross (MRCS) partially activated its EAP (MDRMG025). Tropical Cyclone (TC) Gezani made landfall in Eastern Madagascar on 10th February 2026 as a Category 4 Cyclone and crossed the Country through 11th February 2026. The Cyclone caused devastating impacts along its path, with widespread damage that further worsened the humanitarian situation following TC Fytia.
Following the impact of TC Gezani, and in light of the compounding needs after the landfall of TC Fytia, the Government of Madagascar issued an appeal for international assistance to support areas of the Country devastated by the two cyclones.
The latest reports estimate that in total, 60 districts across 14 regions were affected by TC Fytia and TC Gezani. The hardest hit areas were Soalala and Marovoay in Boeny (accounting for about 80 per cent of Fytia’s impact), Toamasina and Mahajanga (about 75 per cent of Gezani’s impact), and rural areas of Alaotra-Mangoro, which were impacted by both storms. 681,000 people were affected, 73 people died and 811 were injured with over 60,200 displaced, while some 122,000 homes destroyed, damaged, or flooded alongside severe losses to infrastructures, facilities, rice fields and livestock.