Emmanuel Macron chose to extend his visit to Mayotte on Friday, devastated by Cyclone Chido. “I decided to sleep here because I considered that given what the population is going through” leaving the same day could have “establish the idea that we come, we look, we leave”explained the French president, Thursday evening, to the press. “It’s a mark of respect, of consideration”he assured.
The Head of State should leave Mamoudzou, the capital of the French archipelago in the Indian Ocean, on Friday to go to the most isolated localities, where relief, drinking water, electricity and food distribution take longer to arrive. He also said that he would go in the morning to a slum, where the tin housing was often pulverized by the cyclone. Around a third of the population, or more than 100,000 inhabitants, particularly people in an irregular situation coming from neighboring Comoros, live in precarious housing.
Thursday, during a first day in the poorest department in France which was ravaged on December 14 by Cyclone Chido, the Head of State assured that 50% of water and electricity would be “restored from here” until Friday, although it could take “several weeks” in the most common “isolated. The distribution of bottled water and food will reach all communities” between now and Sunday.
Friday evening, after this intense two-day visit, the President of the Republic is expected in Djibouti to share the traditional Christmas meal with French troops deployed abroad.
