After Cyclone Chido, the anguish of Mahorais students in France

“When I return home, my mind goes to Mayotte. Whenever I'm alone, anxiety kicks in. » Like most of the 5,500 young Mahorais who continue their studies in France, Naslat Maroine, a 23-year-old student in journalism and communications in a Parisian school, is deeply shaken by Cyclone Chido, which ravaged her island on December 14.

For more than a week, the consequences of the disaster have invaded the daily lives of these students who live more than 8,000 kilometers from Mayotte and their families. Everyone finds themselves confronted with a lack of information regarding the situation on site, a feeling of helplessness due to the distance and material and psychological difficulties reinforced by their isolation at a time when the Christmas holidays have emptied the universities. and university towns.

While the electricity was still cut on Sunday, December 22, for 68% of Mahorais households, few of them managed to get news from their loved ones. Assani Maoulida, who studies English literature at Paris-VIII University, thus “spent many sleepless nights searching for information on the internet rather than revising [ses] partial ». He who, at 18, had never traveled before arriving in the capital, had considerable expectations for his first year of university. Chido came to turn everything upside down.

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