Cyclone Chido in Mayotte –
The authorities of the French archipelago fear hundreds of deaths
Mayotte was hit by a devastating cyclone. Hundreds or even thousands of deaths are feared by local authorities.
Published today at 9:05 p.m.
This undated photo provided by the NGO Médecins du Monde on Sunday, December 15, 2024, shows a devastated hill in the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean after the passage of Cyclone Chido.
Doctors of the World via AP
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Several hundred, even thousands of deaths: the authorities fear a very heavy human toll in Mayotte, the poorest department in France devastated by Cyclone Chido, where relief efforts were reinforced on Sunday by airlift.
“I think there will certainly be several hundred, perhaps we will approach a thousand, or even a few thousand” deaths given the “violence” of the cyclone, declared the prefect of Mayotte François-Xavier Bieuville on the channel public Mayotte the 1st.
But it will be “very difficult to have a final assessment” given that the Muslim tradition, very anchored in the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean, wants the deceased to be buried “within 24 hours”, specified the representative of the state.
In addition, the illegal population of Mayotte exceeds 100,000 people according to the Ministry of the Interior – out of some 320,000 inhabitants officially counted -, which makes an exhaustive count of the dead improbable.
Leading the way in an air and sea bridge organized from the island of Reunion, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies, the first two planes carrying relief equipment and medical personnel landed in Mayotte during the day Sunday.
The resigning Ministers of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet, are expected in Mayotte late Monday morning.
A race against time began to provide aid and restore the supply of water, food and electricity to the many areas which were still deprived of them on Sunday. Queues stretched out in front of supermarkets.
Gusts over 220 km/h
Some 1,600 police officers and gendarmes are mobilized on the ground, in particular to “avoid looting”, indicated the prefect. With wind gusts observed at more than 220 km/h, Cyclone Chido, the most intense to hit the overseas territory in more than 90 years, wreaked devastation on Saturday.
The highly populated slums of Mayotte were “completely destroyed”, according to the authorities. Even permanent buildings suffered serious damage. “It’s carnage. The court, the prefecture, many services, businesses, schools are on the ground,” Ousseni Balahachi, a retired nurse, told AFP.
This photograph shows a building destroyed after Cyclone Chido passed through the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.
AFP
“The hospital is affected, the schools are affected. Houses are totally devastated. The phenomenon spared nothing in its path,” the mayor of Mamoudzou Ambdilwahedou Soumaila described to AFP. “We still hope to find survivors in the rubble,” the councilor added later on BFMTV.
The huts were destroyed, the corrugated iron roofs flew away, electric poles fell to the ground, trees and bamboo were broken… Most of the roads are impassable, communications extremely difficult.
A trap of the authorities
Many undocumented immigrants living in the slums had not joined the shelters provided by the prefecture, “thinking that it would be a trap being set for them (…) to pick them up and take them outside the borders”, according to former nurse Ousseni Balahachi.
“These people stayed until the last minute. When they saw the intensity of the phenomenon they began to panic, looking for somewhere to take refuge. But it was already too late, the sheets were starting to fly away,” he regretted.
Visiting Corsica on Sunday, Pope Francis said he supported “in spirit” the victims of this “tragedy”. By meeting the head of the Catholic Church at Ajaccio airport, President Emmanuel Macron promised to “act” for the Mahorais.
Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) called on the state to declare a state of emergency to “protect people and property”.
The cyclone alert was lowered from red to orange late Sunday afternoon in Mayotte. Continuing its course, Cyclone Chido hit northern Mozambique on Sunday morning. Only minor damage was recorded in the neighboring Comoros islands, with no deaths.
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