The torrential rains that accompanied last week’s passage of Cyclone Ava on the eastern part of the island of Madagascar has left 29 persons dead and left more than 80,000 people as disaster victims.

According to a statement released by the country’s National Bureau of Disaster Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC), 22 persons have been reported missing after the cyclone swept past the Big Island between Friday morning and Saturday evening.

“At the national level, the provisional assessment reports 29 deaths, 22 missing persons, 17,170 internally displaced persons and 83,023 disaster victims,” the BNGRC said in the statement.

Severe winds and torrential rains had caused many rivers on the island to overflow their banks on the eastern part and caused major flooding, particularly in Tamatave and the lower reaches of the country’s capital, Antananarivo.

Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world is regularly affected by cyclones. Over the past ten years, the country has been hit by forty five cyclones and tropical rain storms, the most recent which occurred in March last year left at least 78 people dead.