“We risk a health crisis,” warns Ben Issa Ousseni

“In addition to the crisis we are experiencing, we also risk a health crisis very soon.“. The warning was launched by Ben Issa Ousseni, the president of the Departmental Council of Mayotte, on the set of the Mayotte television news La 1ère.

This threat is very real, as highlighted for example by Gérard Cotellon, the regional director of the Regional Health Agency of Reunion Island, which is also mobilizing resources for Mayotte.

Watch Ben Issa Ousseni's intervention on the Mayotte La 1ère set:

Chido: “We risk a health crisis” Ben Issa Ousseni, the President of the Departmental Council in the newspaper

The apocalyptic damage caused by Cyclone Chido, as well as the water supply difficulties, are a fertile breeding ground for the development of cholera, present there for several months already since the arrival of the first cases from the Comoros.

The same is true for dengue and chikungunya. Cases of measles, which mainly affect young children, are also likely to increase. But the State seems to have taken stock of the threat, with the activation of a field hospital mobilizing 90 personnel from this Thursday, December 19, in addition to the resources committed to the CHM.

In addition to this health threat, Ben Issa Ousseni goes further by also mentioning “a risk of famine”, with the annihilation of local agricultural production, primarily banana plantations.
The fact remains that if the situation is indeed critical, certain players such as the Sodifram group are, for the moment, being reassuring regarding the state of food stocks.

This is the same reassuring message carried by the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, after his whirlwind visit to the Perfume Island. Food and water will indeed be able to be transported regularly from Reunion thanks to the strengthening of the sea and air bridges, with the upcoming resumption of night flights and the return to service of the port of Longoni.

Still, Ben Issa Ousseni believes that it is just as essential that state services return.on the order prohibiting the importation of regional agricultural products“, this in order to “very quickly allow the Mahorais to import“.

“I expect the State to obtain all the necessary means to support our territory“, adds the elected representative of the Mahorais community, while recognizing the extent of the resources already mobilized, both at regional and national level, with the support in particular of Cyrille Melchior, his counterpart in Reunion, but also of Carole Delga, president of the Régions de France association.

Ben Issa Ousseni was also able to speak with the new Prime Minister François Bayrou, in addition to his meeting with Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet, the resigning Ministers of the Interior and Overseas who came this Monday to Mayotte for a overall state of affairs.

“The State assures its support to Mayotte and we hope that this support will arrive very quickly because Mayotte is devastated and we need it“, says the president of the departmental council of Mayotte.

The community headquarters in Mamoudzou also suffered the full force of the passage of Cyclone Chido, finally indicates Ben Issa Ousseni.

“We met in a crisis unit today, the headquarters was ravagedhe laments. We were able to set up a small room but we have no electricity, we have no water. The Department is today as much a victim as the entire population“.

The Department's services are therefore at a forced standstill. “We cannot activate any help for the moment. Starting tomorrow, our teams will launch an inventory but our PMIs are closed and our social services are not opening either…“

There remains this glimmer of hope hailed by Ben Issa Ousseni who testifies to having himself observed the formidable fighting spirit of the Mahorais.

“I was in the street yesterday, I was with those who tried to clear the path from the North to Mamoudzou and I saw how the Mahorais are united“This will be necessary to overcome as best as possible this crisis which promises to be long and to avoid as much as possible a real health disaster.