United Nations aid workers in eastern Madagascar are helping local officials mount relief efforts in the wake of Tropical Storm Hubert, which has killed dozens of people in the Indian Ocean country and left an estimated 11,000 others homeless.

The UN Country Team stocked relief items such as food, medicines, mosquito nets and shelter materials in the affected areas, according to an update released yesterday, and is assisting local officials to evacuate people from some of the more isolated districts.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has started distributing emergency rations in the Farafagana region, and will soon given one ton of high-energy biscuits to victims in Manakara.

Seven districts, mostly in the southeast of the country, are reported to be flood-stricken, with schools, health centres and homes all reported to be damaged following the storm, which hit Madagascar late last week. Relief efforts have been hampered by the widespread damage to roads, which has cut off links to some communities.

The UN Country Team, citing figures from the Malagasy Red Cross, reported that 11,000 people became homeless immediately after the storm but may return to their houses once water levels subside.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, is financing an aerial assessment of the flooded region.