Keystone-SDA
Several hundred, even thousands of deaths in Mayotte: the human toll from tropical cyclone Chido promises to be very heavy in the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the poorest department in France, where help began to arrive on Sunday.
This content was published on
December 15, 2024 – 6:25 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) “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 archipelago, wants people to be buried “within 24 hours”, specified the representative of the State.
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.
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, has wreaked devastation.
“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.
Impassable roads
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.
Precarious housing, which concerns around a third of the archipelago’s population estimated at 320,000 inhabitants, is “entirely destroyed” and many public service installations have been destroyed or damaged, forcing the authorities to operate under conditions degraded, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Ibrahim, a resident of Mayotte contacted by AFP, tried to reach the west of the main island on Sunday morning, clearing the roads as he went in “an apocalyptic setting”. “Only a few permanent houses held up. Nothing remains of the slums,” he reported.
Many undocumented immigrants living in the slums had not joined the shelters provided by the prefecture, “thinking that it would be a trap that was being set for them (…) to pick them up and take them outside the borders”, explained to AFP Ousseni Balahachi, retired nurse and CFDT departmental secretary.
“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.
The Pope in solidarity
The population was in a state of astonishment on Sunday, deprived of water and electricity, a source close to the authorities told AFP.
Visiting Corsica on Sunday, Pope Francis said he supported “in spirit” the victims of this “tragedy”, following the Angelus prayer at Ajaccio Cathedral.
Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) called on X 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.
Related News :