Mayotte: Cyclone Chido “certainly” caused “several hundred” deaths, even “thousands”

The figures are dizzying and allow us to measure the violence of Cyclone Chido. “Certainly several hundred” deaths, “even a few thousand”, will be deplored, announced the prefect of Mayotte this Sunday around 5 p.m. while the toll was still officially reporting 14 victims recorded for the moment. The prefecture of Mayotte announced this Sunday afternoon the end of the red alert and the triggering of the cyclone safeguard phase.

A heavy toll still uncertain

“I think there will certainly be several hundred, perhaps we will approach a thousand, or even a few thousand” deaths, declared François-Xavier Bieuville on the public channel Mayotte la 1ère. It will be “very difficult to have a final assessment” given that the Muslim tradition, very anchored in the neighborhoods of precarious housing completely destroyed, requires that people be buried “within 24 hours”.

The resigning Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, expected in Mayotte during the day on Monday, also estimated that it would “probably take days” to “refine” the human toll. For the moment, the information feedback is very fragmented with a population confined to their homes, in a state of astonishment, deprived of water and electricity.

Massive destruction

“The hospital is affected, the schools are affected. Houses are devastated. The phenomenon spared nothing in its wake,” described the mayor of Mamoudzou. Ibrahim, a resident of Mayotte contacted by AFP, tried to reach the west of the main island on Sunday morning, clearing the roads as he went in “an apocalyptic setting”. “Only a few permanent houses held up. Nothing remains of the slums,” he reported.

UNICEF, present on site, declared that “many houses, schools and health centers were partially or completely destroyed”. The organization is assessing the impact of the cyclone and will deliver medicines, water purification products and other essentials, UNICEF said in a statement.

A number of undocumented immigrants living in the slums have not joined the shelters provided by the prefecture “thinking that it would be a trap being set for them (…) to pick them up and take them outside the borders”, also explained to AFP Ousseni Balahachi, retired nurse and CFDT departmental secretary. “These people stayed until the last minute. When they saw the intensity of the phenomenon they began to panic, looking for somewhere to take refuge. But it was already too late, the sheets were starting to fly away,” he regretted.

According to details from the Ministry of Justice this Sunday, the roof of the appeals chamber has disappeared” and “two buildings out of three of the judicial court are unusable. The penitentiary center has held up better than other public buildings.”

A first humanitarian plane has arrived

Bruno Retailleau announced the sending in “five successive waves until Wednesday of reinforcements for civil security”, i.e. around “800 people as well as equipment (…) but also medical personnel”. The runway at Pamandzi airport is still passable, even if the navigation devices and the control tower have been damaged. Gusts there reached 226 km/h according to Météo France.

Leading the way in an air and sea bridge organized from the island of Reunion, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies, the first civil security plane since the cyclone landed on Sunday in Mayotte in 3:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. Paris time), transporting relief equipment and medical personnel.

From the start of the week, 162 civil security soldiers and firefighters from France will come to reinforce the 110 pre-positioned in the archipelago since Friday, before the confinement made obligatory by the activation of the purple vigilance.

“The inventory of the needs of the emergency services and the populations continues in order to organize rotations (air and sea), as long as necessary,” indicates the defense zone prefecture in a press release, which details several rotations of a DASH, two CASA military aircraft and a national navy ship. This very Sunday, they will transport 21 medical personnel to Mayotte, three tonnes of equipment from the medical service, packages from the French blood establishment, two tonnes of EDF equipment to help restore power and water treatment systems, as well as tarpaulins and food.

Priority to reopen the airport

The Mayotte airport tower has been “out of service” since Saturday, the prefect of Reunion Island said this Sunday. “Priority” is given by the authorities to the reopening of the infrastructure. Civil aviation professionals are expected in this regard.

This Sunday, only equipment and personnel can be transported by military means, given the extent of the destruction on site. The military will have to work to “restore running water, maintain public order” and ensure “the water supply”, specified Jean-Marc Giraud, senior commander of the armed forces on BFM.

A field hospital will be set up in the coming days by Civil Security to treat the many injured. The Regional Health Agency and the Mayotte hospital will have to prioritize the most urgently injured people, some of whom may be repatriated to Reunion or mainland France.

An “exceptional” cyclone

According to the explanations of François Gourand, forecaster at Météo France, Cyclone Chido was “exceptional” because it directly hit the archipelago, while its power was boosted by particularly warm waters in the Indian Ocean linked to climate change. .

In the midst of the disaster, the Mahorais now at least have the assurance that Chido will not return to sow more desolation. The cyclone continues its route towards the African continent, at a speed of 26 km/h. At dawn this Sunday morning, its eye was 420 km from Mayotte and 1,710 km from Reunion. Intense rains were expected over part of the Comoros.

Chido is expected to reach Malawi by Monday, bringing significant rainfall to the drought-stricken country. Zimbabwe also issued a warning for heavy rain associated with the cyclone. The cyclone appeared to have intensified as it crossed the Mozambique Channel overnight to make landfall about 40 km south of the town of Pemba in northern Mozambique, according to weather services. The intense tropical cyclone is expected to dissipate inland in southern Africa on Tuesday.