Macron will go to Mayotte, devastated by a cyclone

(Keystone-ATS) Three days after the passage of this cyclone, the most intense that Mayotte has experienced in 90 years, the Indian Ocean archipelago is lacking everything and the health situation is deteriorating. “We are starting to run out of water. We have a few bottles left but there are almost no more stocks in the stores,” worries Antoy Abdallah, 34, resident of Tsoundzou, to AFP.

From the Comorian town of Domoni where Mayotte can be seen in good weather, Faiza Soulaimana, contacted by telephone by AFP, said she was “very worried” about her aunt “because she is diabetic and is on dialysis”. “Since the cyclone hit, no one has been able to reach her,” she worries, while Mayotte has been cut off from the world since Saturday.

The curfew came into force on Tuesday evening, from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. local time (8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. in Switzerland), in this Indian Ocean territory to ensure security and avoid looting, with residents still lacking everything. Some 100 tonnes of food will be distributed on Wednesday in Grande-Terre, and 20 tonnes in the two communes of Petite-Terre, according to the authorities.

Electricity “being restored”

Three barges will be “functional” on Wednesday to transport emergency personnel, food and water between the two islands, isolated from each other. The situation remains very difficult in the archipelago, where housing but also public infrastructure were badly damaged by the passage of the cyclone.

Tuesday evening, electricity was “being restored” according to the authorities, while the mobile telephone network still remained 80% unavailable. The provisional toll reached 22 dead and 1,373 injured, according to figures communicated Tuesday evening by the Ministry of the Interior. The assessment “is not yet established” due to difficulties in accessing the area, French Prime Minister François Bayrou declared Tuesday before the National Assembly in Paris.

The prefect of Mayotte spoke of “certainly several hundred” victims, perhaps “a few thousand” after Chido’s visit to this poorest department in France. The count is all the more complicated because Mayotte is a land with a strong Muslim tradition and, according to Islamic rites, the deceased must be buried as quickly as possible.

The Red Cross has not heard from 200 volunteers, according to the humanitarian organization. In Mozambique, Cyclone Chido killed at least 34 people, injured more than 300 and destroyed more than 20,000 houses, the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management announced on Tuesday.

“Totally devastated”

Mayotte “is totally devastated”, explained the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, in Reunion, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies from Mayotte, from where he was returning from a trip there, specifying that “70% of residents were seriously affected.”

Emmanuel Macron “will be in Mayotte on Thursday”, after a summit in Brussels on Wednesday, the presidency announced Tuesday evening. The minister also announced the arrival “in the coming days” of 400 additional gendarmes to lend a hand to the 1,600 gendarmes and police present on the archipelago, while specifying that there had “not really been any looting” so far.

However, the authorities are observing an influx of people towards service stations, two thirds of which are requisitioned for emergency vehicles. According to them, “tensions are beginning to appear”. Tuesday midday, the mobile telephone network still remained unavailable at 80%. The cyclone devastated the Indian Ocean territory on Saturday, where around a third of the population lives in precarious, totally destroyed housing.

Chido was probably favored by surface waters close to 30°C, which provides more energy for storms, a global warming phenomenon already observed elsewhere this fall. On the archipelago, the first medical desert in France, the only hospital, badly damaged, is “gradually resuming its activity” and will be supported by a field hospital from Thursday, indicated Mr. Retailleau.

Illegal immigrants

Mr. Retailleau, known for his right-wing positions, has already stressed that the Mayotte archipelago cannot be rebuilt “without addressing the migration issue”. Nearly half the population is made up of immigrants from neighboring Comoros or other African countries, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

Rescuers are still looking for victims and expect to find many victims in the rubble of the very populated shanty towns, particularly in the heights of Mamoudzou, the capital having called on Monday its adult residents and in “good physical condition” to “strengthen the teams on the ground.

Calls for solidarity and minutes of silence have multiplied, including abroad, with the United States indicating that it is ready to “offer appropriate humanitarian aid”.