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In Mayotte, families hosted in accommodation centers asked to leave the premises
At the Manguier school in Mamoudzou, the atmosphere is tinged with sadness and resignation. Two and a half weeks after the devastating passage of the cyclone in Mayotte, preparation for the start of the school year is a priority. The families accommodated must find another roof. In the courtyard of the Paulette Henry elementary school – known as the Mango Tree – it’s breakfast time: bread and tuna, accompanied by a little juice. Here, there is no electricity… So we tried to store non-perishable food,” explains Mrahati Abdallah, a member of the team that manages the center. In the middle of bottles of water, milk , boxes of biscuits and of compotes, the town hall agents and the volunteers present take stock one last time before distributing the provisions to the affected families who have taken refuge here for two weeks. “Sometimes we have gifts. We can then give something else.” On this last day of the year, faces are tense. Everyone knows that the center must close in a few hours, like the twenty or so emergency accommodation places opened in the capital of Mahor on December 13, the eve of the passage of Cyclone Chido. These centers served as refuge for nearly 12,500 people. On Monday, Roukia Abdillah was already preparing to leave. A resident of Mamoudzou, she lived a few meters from the school. Nothing remains of her house. “We won’t leave here with dirty clothes,” she sighs as she washes her clothes in a large metal basin. “It will dry in the afternoon. And tomorrow we will leave.” At Le Manguier, 21 infants, 118 children and 63 adults are affected. – Cleaning necessary – “They gave us a roof to shelter us. Now that they are asking us to leave, we will leave without trying to cause any problems”, continues Nadjati Mouhoudhoire, another resident of the neighborhood. She has already started bringing her things home, a few meters away: clothes, water cans, precious documents hidden under metal sheets. “I don’t know where to go, so I’m going to come back here,” she explains in the middle of what’s left of her house. “I have to think about it, but I can’t.” She and her son plan to rebuild. When ? How ? They don’t know yet. On Monday, the mayor of Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, indicated to Prime Minister François Bayrou that all emergency accommodation centers in his commune would be closed from January 1 “so that we “We can get the schools back.” “It is necessary to clean up so that the start of the school year, normally scheduled for January 20, can take place in the best possible conditions,” he argued. Before the head of the government, the mayor also deplored the fact that a Republic school had been “burned” in his town, an establishment transformed into an emergency accommodation center. An investigation is underway into these facts, the Mamoudzou prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP on Tuesday. It is difficult to know where the families will go after leaving the accommodation. “We just need time to rebuild our house.” pleads Siti, a 3rd grade student at Mgombani middle school, located a few hundred meters from the elementary school. “With my mother, there are six of us. The smallest is a few months old. Today, we don’t know where to go. We know where to build, but we haven’t had the time yet.” The mayor recalls that the State, “through the Prime Minister”, is committed to “taking care of all of these families who will not have a place to sleep”, according to terms that the prefect has yet to specify. aba/bfa/
