scenes of desolation in Mayotte after the passage of cyclone Chido

A race against time has begun in Mayotte to try to help the victims of this French archipelago in the Indian Ocean, devastated by a deadly cyclone. There is a shortage of water and food, while the shanty towns are nothing more than a field of ruins. The resigning Ministers of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet, are expected Monday, December 16 at the end of the morning in the poorest department in France, where the authorities fear “several hundred» deaths. The latest report provided by the authorities shows 14 deaths.

But a final assessment will be “very difficult» to be established, because the Muslim tradition, alive in Mayotte, requires that the deceased be buried “within 24 hours», explained prefect François-Xavier Bieuville on Sunday. In addition, the illegal population of the territory exceeds 100,000 people according to the Ministry of the Interior – out of some 320,000 inhabitants officially counted -, making an exhaustive count of the dead improbable.

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Roofs torn off, trees uprooted… The devastating images of Cyclone Chido which struck Mayotte

With wind gusts of more than 220 km/h, Cyclone Chido, the most intense that Mayotte has experienced in 90 years, ravaged the small archipelago on Saturday where around a third of the population lives in precarious housing, totally destroyed. Huts destroyed, tin roofs blown away, electric poles down, trees uprooted… The residents, who remained confined during the passage of the cyclone, discovered, stunned, scenes of chaos. Across the territory, many roads are impassable and many communications cut.

The fear of a very heavy toll

“It’s carnage. The court, the prefecture, many services, businesses, schools are down,” Ousseni Balahachi, a retired nurse, told AFP from Mamoudzou, the “capital» Mahoraise. The hospital was flooded and, according to him, risks not being able to treat the many injured in good conditions.

An air and sea bridge was organized from the island of Reunion, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies, to send medical and relief equipment and personnel. A total of 800 civil security personnel are sent as reinforcements, with a field hospital and satellite transmission equipment. Rescuers expect to find many victims in the rubble of the densely populated shanty towns, particularly in the heights of Mamoudzou, said the city’s mayor Ambdilwahedou Soumaila.

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“Lots of cries for help”

Teams “have started working to free up access to remote areas“, Or “we still hope to find survivors», added the councilor, who specified having received “lots of cries for help“. Many undocumented immigrants from the slums had not reached the shelters provided by the prefecture, “thinking that it would be a trap that was being set for them (…) to pick them up and lead them outside the borders», According to former nurse Ousseni Balahachi.

Many victims reached accommodation centers on Sunday, reported Salama Ramia, senator from Mayotte. “But unfortunately there is no water, no electricity, hunger is starting to rise. It is urgent that help arrives, especially when you see children, babies, to whom we have nothing concrete to offer», Alarmed the elected official on BFMTV. “Some of my neighbors are already hungry and thirsty», also laments Lucas Duchaufour, a physiotherapist living in Labattoir, a town on the island of Petite-Terre. Who notes that all the fruit trees, like the mango trees, have been uprooted.

Residents speak of a climate of insecurity, with scenes of looting in the Kawéni industrial zone in Mamoudzou, as Frédéric Bélanger, 52, reported to AFP. “We are afraid of being attacked, of being looted», Confided Océane, nurse at the Mayotte hospital center on BFMTV. Some 1,600 police officers and gendarmes are mobilized on the ground, in particular to “avoid looting», indicated the prefect.