International hospital ship organisation Mercy Ships has delivered emergency supplies to Madagascar’s hardest-hit city as the country struggles to recover from one of the most destructive cyclones to strike the island in decades, with more than 400,000 people still in need of humanitarian assistance nearly three weeks after the storm made landfall.
Intense Tropical Cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar’s east coast near Toamasina on February 10, 2026, with sustained winds of 180 kilometres per hour and gusts reaching 250 kilometres per hour, destroying or damaging tens of thousands of homes and leaving 59 people dead and 804 injured. The World Food Programme (WFP) described the scale of destruction as “really overwhelming,” noting that approximately 80 percent of Toamasina had suffered damage and that the city was operating on roughly five percent of its normal electricity supply in the immediate aftermath.
The timing compounded an already fragile food security situation. Between December 2025 and January 2026, approximately 1.57 million Malagasy people were already facing high levels of acute food insecurity. With Gezani destroying crops and disrupting supply chains through the port of Toamasina, the country’s primary economic gateway, that figure is projected to rise to 1.8 million people by April 2026. Gezani struck just ten days after Tropical Cyclone Fytia had already killed 14 people and displaced more than 31,000.
Mercy Ships, responding through its Madagascar country office, delivered 537 bags of rice, 1,000 roofing sheets, and 1,000 ready-to-eat meals to Toamasina, officially handing them over to the Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes (BNGRC), Madagascar’s national disaster management authority, for distribution to affected communities. Country Director Nicholas Ahadjie said the response reflected Mercy Ships’ long-term commitment to the country. “We are committed to supporting the national response and ensuring that assistance reaches communities where the needs are greatest,” he said.
The roofing materials address one of the most acute needs on the ground. In Toamasina alone, 18,797 houses were destroyed and a further 51,760 damaged, with 75 percent of buildings across the city considered destroyed. The ready-to-eat meals target the most immediately vulnerable, including displaced families who have lost cooking facilities entirely.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Emergency Response Team (ERT), which was formally integrated into Madagascar’s national disaster management framework on February 18, concluded its first-phase deployment on February 28, 2026, after supporting rapid assessments, search and rescue operations, and technical assistance to affected communities across 18 districts in five regions. The team emphasised the urgent need to intensify Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions, improve food security conditions, and accelerate the rehabilitation of health centres and roads before the next phase of the cyclone season.
Mercy Ships’ hospital vessel Africa Mercy is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance in South Africa and is expected to return to Madagascar in May 2026 to resume free surgical services and medical training programmes in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
