Antananarivo, 06 March, 2022 / 10:00 pm (ACI Africa).
The leadership of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has, in a collective statement, expressed solidarity with the people of God in Madagascar following the “terrible cyclone Batsirai” that hit the country last month.
On February 11, tropical cyclone Batsirai hit Madagascar killing at least 124 people, Reuters reported. Four days later, at least 14 people were killed, and thousands forced to seek shelter with the state disaster relief agency after tropical storm Dumako hit the Indian Ocean Island nation.
In their collective statement shared with ACI Africa Friday, March 4, officials of SECAM express their spiritual closeness with their brother Bishops and the victims of the cyclones in Madagascar.
“We, your brother bishops, representing the episcopate of all the Regions of the continent, take the opportunity of this seminar organized by the SECAM Commission for Evangelization here in Nairobi to express to you our deepest sympathy in the face of the great natural disaster which has just struck your country,” SECAM leadership says in the statement dated February 24.
Representatives of the forum that brings together Catholic Bishops in Africa and Madagascar add, “Indeed, it is with deep consternation that we all received the shocking news of the terrible cyclone Batsirai, which dramatically ravaged a large part of Madagascar and the islands of the region at the beginning of this month of February 2022, leaving behind it a major disaster with notably dozens of deaths and massive destruction of property.”
