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Antananarivo. – The death toll from Cyclone Freddy’s second assault on Madagascar rose to eight this week as it strengthened on its way to Mozambique, authorities said.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Freddy, which originated off northwestern Australia in early February, was on track to become the longest tropical cyclone on record.

The Malagasy government said more than 40 000 people have been affected and more than 14 000 displaced since the cyclone returned to hit the island after following an unusual path. In total, at least 15 people have died in Madagascar since Freddy first hit at the end of February, bringing strong winds and torrential rains.

The United Nations’ monitoring station on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion warned that Freddy will “gradually intensify to the stage of a tropical cyclone or even an intense tropical cyclone” over the Mozambique Channel before making landfall overnight today into tomorrow.

Freddy is expected to intensify today as it approaches coastal Mozambique, with current windspeeds at sea averaging 110km per hour, gusts of 155km an hour. It’s projected to make landfall in Zambezia, the country’s second most populous province

Its reemergence has baffled meteorologists with its constant shift of direction and multiple record-breaking feats. Freddy has intensified four separate times, a first for a tropical cyclone in the southern hemisphere. It also now holds the world record for what’s known as accumulated cyclone energy, a metric to gauge a cyclone’s strength over time. – africanews.com