“We are afraid that there will be many victims,” says the mayor of Mamoudzou

Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte on Saturday, causing serious damage.

“We are afraid that, in the next two to three days, there will be many victims”declared, Saturday December 14, on franceinfo, the mayor of Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, while Cyclone Chido caused considerable damage in Mayotte.

“We have a lot of injured people. There are some who manage to manage on their own to get to the Mayotte hospital center, in Mamoudzou,” he explains. “We will have a slightly more detailed assessment in the 48 too”, he said. Since 1984, the year of the last cyclone which strongly hit the territory of Mayotte, “we have not experienced such a situation”, assures the mayor of Mamoudzou. “It surprised everyone”he said.

Mayotte is currently plunged into darkness : “Connections are extremely difficult. We cannot reach the command center of the prefecture which manages the entire territory, because there is no telephone network, nor our other mayor colleagues “he says.

10,000 emergency accommodation places have been made available: “6,000 people have joined our sites. Emergency accommodation centers are still available,” he indicates. “We have completely razed slums, hence a significant influx of people recently on our respective sites”he emphasizes.

An interministerial crisis meeting is organized in the evening in the presence of François Bayrou. Ambdilwahedou Soumaila listed the priorities: “We will have to find roofs because they no longer have housing. We will have to find them very quickly because they are now occupying schools”. But the urgency is to deliver drinking water and food. “People don’t have enough food to survive,” he explains. The government is sending an A400M plane to Mayotte with humanitarian cargo and civil security resources.