The Prime Minister, François Bayrou, will arrive on Monday December 30 in Mayotte, and not the day before as initially planned, for a visit focused on “concrete solutions” for the inhabitants of the archipelago devastated by Cyclone Chido, Agence France-Presse learned from Matignon on Saturday December 28. He is expected to travel Monday evening to Reunion, an important logistics base located 1,435 kilometers away, where he will continue his visit the next day.
He will be accompanied by Ministers of State Elisabeth Borne (national education) and Manuel Valls (overseas) and Ministers Valérie Létard (housing), Yannick Neuder (health) and Thani Mohamed Soilihi (French speaking and international partnerships). The details of the visit of this important ministerial delegation have not yet been specified.
Mr. Bayrou goes to Mayotte “with the desire to provide concrete solutions to local populations on issues of education, health and housing”. Et “with his experience as a local elected official, who knows how to provide concrete, and above all rapid, responses to meet the needs of the Mahorais”explains those around him.
In an open letter, citizen collectives of Mayotte denounce “the glaring inadequacy of the measures” support after the cyclone. “The arrival of rescuers – technicians, engineers and specialized personnel – was marked by unacceptable slowness, and their number remains dramatically below actual needs”write the collectives, adding to the long list of emergencies to be addressed the difficult access to basic necessities, the restoration of the electricity network which is slow, the destroyed schools and the risk of looting and squatting of housing whose occupants have left the 'archipelago.
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Thirty-nine deaths recorded and more than 4,000 injured
According to the report from the Ministry of the Interior published on Friday, electricity had been restored to 46% of residents and almost the entire population had access to running water.
The collectives also ask “extraordinary measures”dont “a rapid and structured reconstruction plan”. They demand the creation of a “exceptional solidarity fund” to compensate the victims, including the uninsured, and the “removal of property taxes for the current year”.
Friday, in an open letter, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, called for “acts” for Mayotte to the Prime Minister, whom he criticizes for not having surrendered ” immediately “ on site, to have announced the composition of his government on the day of national mourning (December 23) and to have “seemed to seek to put the importance of the disaster into perspective”.
“The debris continues to pile up, raising fears of health risks, water and food remain rationed, electricity is cut off for half the population in the northwest of the island and in the razed shanty towns, the residents feel abandoned and are waiting for help”wrote the first secretary of the PS, who also questions the head of government on “the work of census of deceased people”.
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Appointed prime minister on December 13, on the eve of the cyclone, Mr. Bayrou sparked a lively controversy by going to the municipal council of Pau on December 16, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, after participating in a meeting by videoconference crisis in Mayotte.
The human toll still remains very uncertain, with 39 deaths officially recorded and more than 4,000 injured.
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