Antananarivo, Feb 23 (IANS): Tropical cyclone Emnati lashed the southeast coast of Madagascar, the fourth tropical storm to hit the island nation in a month, according to weather forecasters and UN humanitarians.

"Emnati will be the fifth extreme weather event this year, and fourth tropical storm to make landfall in Madagascar in one month," said Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday.

Heading southwesterly, the storm's centre was just 40 km off the coast late Tuesday night, and is forecast to cut across the southeast corner of Indian Ocean island's southern tip, reports Xinhua news agency.

It follows tropical storm Ana on January 22, tropical cyclone Batsirai on February 5 and tropical storm Dumako on February 15, OCHA said.

Madagascar was in "an inter-tropical convergence zone (event) which impacted Madagascar on January 17".

The worst extreme weather was tropical cyclone Batsirai which killed more than 120 people, OCHA said. And survivors of that cyclone "are likely to be impacted again by Emnati".

The office said the government has led preparations and response for the latest storm with support from humanitarian partners.