in Mayotte, children traumatized by cyclone Chido

“It was horrible, I was terrified.” When talking about Cyclone Chido, the voice of Moulaida, 14, breaks slightly. The young girl seems very marked by the cataclysm which swept Mayotte on Saturday December 14. With her family, Moulaida had gone to Koungou primary school as soon as the alert was raised. But “even in schools, it broke the windows and the water came in”remembers the schoolgirl.

In Mayotte, many children were hit hard by the disaster and a week later, their trauma is acute. The population of the 101st department is much younger than elsewhere in France. Here, the average age is 23 years old, according to INSEE, compared to 41 years old in France. A situation that concerns Unicef. “While nearly one in two residents is a child, we recall the importance of placing the needs of children at the heart of emergency responses”warns the UN agency.

In this district of Koungou, only the nursery and elementary school seems to have been spared. It must be said that the imposing white and yellow establishment is one of the rare permanent buildings. Its large buildings usually accommodate nearly 900 students. But since the cyclone, as in many other Mahorais school groups, dozens of families have been staying there, waiting to find stable housing.

“This is where we sleep with my brothers and my mother”says Moulaida, pointing to the camp beds that have replaced school desks in the classroom. On the wall, the whiteboard, the multiplication tables and the conjugation rules remained hanging. The students' little words – “I love you”, “My loves” – are always written in marker. “I live in the slums up there”explains the schoolgirl. His parents are rebuilding their “banga”, one of those tin huts which covered the surrounding hills and which Chido blew down.

“If I had powers, I would like all the houses to rise and there to be no more cyclones.”

Moulaida, 14 years old

at franceinfo

Like her, many children met in the neighborhood have difficulty finding the words to describe the disaster that has befallen their young heads.. “I was at my mother's house. We heard a wind. Then I went to my room and I heard the door bang loudly”says Yanas, 12 years old. The young boy now accompanies his mother to fetch drinking water from the school sinks.

“I was very shocked. In my life, I had never seen that. The slum was all on the ground. I think about the cyclone a lot. I will tell my children about it.”

Yanas, 12 years old

at franceinfo

With the arrival of gusts of wind from the ocean, “we felt like waves were rising”says Jasmine, 11 years old. “I was very stressed. I cried”blurted the young girl, still moved. At her side, Moulaida tries to comfort her: “We are happy because we are alive.” To deal with the trauma, a medical-psychological emergency unit was set up by the Mayotte prefecture.

In the schoolyard, a 16-year-old Mahorais man fills buckets of water and carefully places them in his wheelbarrow. He also lives in the heights. After a few minutes of walking in the muddy and rutted paths of the shantytown, he points to his house. A gigantic blue container landed in his room. “If I had stayed, I would have died. No one can survive that.”whispers the teenager. “It’s engraved and it will always remain”comments the young boy soberly.

A few meters away, several children around ten years old are playing in the alleys. The cyclone brought a hasty end to classes. But the news is far from rejoicing them. “I would like the school to be redone and the children to be able to come back to study”demands Younoussa, 10 years old. Not all establishments will be able to reopen as planned on January 13, after the Christmas holidays, admitted Emmanuel Macron after a two-day visit. In the meantime, Younoussa's big brother keeps an eye on his math notebooks. “Since everything is broken, I help him, he’s my little brother”explains Wallas. They all share the same fear, summarized by Moulaida: “If the cyclone comes back, it will destroy everything again and we will start from scratch.”