“The damage is cataclysmic. The situation is very, very underestimated”: scenes of distress in the devastated Mayotte archipelago

Rescue was organized on Monday in Mayotte, supported by 800 Civil Security personnel and
1,600 police officers and gendarmes to provide emergency aid to the population after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido.

A provisional report shows 20 deaths but, according to the prefecture, the victims could be counted by “hundreds”, see by “thousands”.

“It’s going to take days and days” to establish it, warned, on the spot, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, while the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, chaired a crisis meeting in Paris.

“We will be here today and tomorrow”

“Now is the time for urgency, we will be there today as tomorrow,” promised the head of state, who will go there “in the coming days” and will decree “a national mourning”. The winds of more than 00 km/h which have swept across the Indian Ocean archipelago in recent days have left behind scenes of desolation, plunging the population, already impoverished, into total distress. Residents speak of a situation “apocalyptic”.

“I thought this was going to be the end for me.”testifies John Balloz, a resident of Mamoudzou. “It's a disaster. There is nothing left… Mayotte has been devastated and needs rescuers to help people in the slums who are stuck, who lack water, who lack food, who lack care “We really need help.”alerts Océane, intensive care nurse at the main Mamoudzou hospital, at the microphone of BFMTV.

“There is no more water, no more electricity”

“Today, as always, it is the residents of the neighborhoods themselves who are the first helpers and the first to act. But the reaction capacities with the island's own resources are extremely limited”observes Julien Bousac, general coordinator of the Médecins du monde teams, quoted by France Inter.

Clothilde Ollier: “The impression that the State has completely abandoned the population”,

“It's crazy, it's a French department, but we have the impression that the State has completely abandoned the population”says Montpellier elected official Clothilde Ollier, stuck on the island. Hamada Ali, a teacher, describes streets covered in mud and trees, with residents now trying to take refuge in schools.

“The situation is very, very underestimated”

Or “80% of schools and colleges are destroyed. The damage is cataclysmic. The situation is very, very underestimated, there is no more water, no more electricity”explains Franck, a civil service executive, on site.

More than three-quarters of Mayotte's 321,000 inhabitants live below the national poverty line. According to the Interior Ministry, the archipelago is home to more than 100,000 undocumented migrants, most often in shanty towns that have not resisted.

“Precarious housing of which we do not see the slightest trace”

“All the tin houses were destroyed. Those with tin roofs were swept away by the cyclone. There are precarious dwellings of which we cannot see the slightest trace”worries Hamada Ali.

Another threat taken into account, “we must be on acute health watch. We will be vigilant to stop any epidemics that could develop”underlined, for her part, the resigning Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, on France 2.