ANTANANARIVO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A cyclone that hit eastern Madagascar over the weekend killed at least six people and injured three others while two people were reported missing, authorities said on Monday.
The tropical cyclone Ava passed through Madagascar on Friday and Saturday, hitting mostly the eastern coast of the island with wind speeds of between 140-190 kph (87-119 mph).
The National Office of Risk and Disaster Management said in a statement that more 13,000 people were displaced by the cyclone, while more than 16,000 pupils had classes suspended until Thursday, due to flooding and risk of landslides.
In March 2017, Cyclone Enawo struck Madagascar, killing at least 78 people on its vanilla-producing northeastern coast.
Enawo damaged around 30 percent of the crop in the world's biggest producer, which accounts for nearly half of the world's crop.
But Georges Geeraerts, the president of the Group of the Vanilla exporters, told Reuters the cyclone Ava had not touched vanilla-producing areas and there had been "no impact" on vanilla production.
(Reporting by Lovasoa Rabary; Writing by George Obulutsa)
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