The inhabitants describe an island completely destroyed and “an apocalyptic setting ». « We have to rebuild everything, Mayotte is on the ground.” Leaving his home on Sunday, Ibrahim became aware of the incredible violence of the damage caused by the cyclone. Around him, branches litter the ground, the roads are blocked by metal sheets, trees and debris, electric poles are down, cars are torn to pieces… “My neighbors lost everything. Their house no longer has a roof and all their personal belongings have been destroyed by the rain and the wind, explains the forty-year-old, reached by telephone. It’s a horror film, it feels like it was set after the Second World War.”
This president of an athletics club in the west of the island, who took to the road on Sunday morning to try to free the axes using a chainsaw, crossed “devastated villages”. “Apart from a few permanent houses, everything is on the ground. The slums have been completely razed”continues the one who specifies “lack of information, lack of internet connection and available network”. Beyond the disruptions in the telephone network, Mayotte is also deprived of water and electricity.
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Cyclone Chido: in Mayotte, “it feels like after the Second World War”
Belgium