France prepares to deal with the consequences of one of its biggest humanitarian catastrophes of this century
The situation of the health system in the French archipelago of Mayotte, devastated by a cyclone, is “very degraded with a hospital very destroyed and medical centers equally inoperative”, said the French Minister of Health this Monday.
“The hospital suffered significant water damage and also degradation, particularly in the areas of surgery, resuscitation, emergency, maternity, essential parts of the hospital’s functioning”, described Geneviève Darrieussecq.
In an interview with France 2 channel, the French Minister of Health and Solidarity expressed concern about the situation, but assured that the equipment continues to work.
“Despite everything [o hospital] continues to function even if precariously”, said the government official who also described the existence of “medical centers that are equally inoperative”.
According to the EPA, at least 14 people died and more than 200 were injured when the cyclone passed.
France is now preparing to deal with the consequences of one of its biggest humanitarian catastrophes of this century, following the passage, on Saturday, of tropical cyclone Chido on the islands of Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, where, According to estimates by the department’s government delegation, it is feared that there will be “several hundred deaths”.
In an interview with the local public television channel Mayotte la 1er, the French government delegate in the department of Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, declared that it will be “very difficult” to make a final assessment and that, in the worst case scenario, the number of deaths it will be “close to a thousand or even several thousand”.
If these numbers are confirmed, Cyclone Chido in Mayotte will go down in history as one of the worst catastrophes of the 21st century on French territory.
