Cheneso (the tropical storm) killed 30, 20 people were lost, and thousands were displaced, which made landfall on jan 19, the first storm of the year. This however is unfortunately not uncommon for Madagascar, as it sees a series of these storms every year. Flooding and landslides from Cheneso has been devastating, as many as 37,000 people have been displaced. At the least, the death toll of two weeks ago has been 16 and around 138 people have been killed and 130,000 have been left without a home.
Ever since full satellite coverage in 1998 allowed for the surveillance of Madagascar storms, Major tropical cyclones have hit Madagascar once every three years. Due to these storms, agricultural seasons will suffer extensive crop failure, especially rice, their cash crop. This means that countries that rely on Madagascar rice will suffer food shortages, affecting more countries than just Madagascar.
This article is of great importance because it shows that Madigascar cannot be a powerfull hegemon due to how bad its geography is. Even its own national security has been put at risk due to these tropical storms. If Madigascar can’t even protect it’s own country, there is no way it can ever rise to become a global hegemon.