“There will be several hundred, perhaps we will approach 1,000, even several thousand dead,” said the prefect of MayotteFrançois-Xavier Bieuville, after carrying out a first balance of the passage of the cyclone Chido for the mayotte islanddepartment of France located in the indian ocean. Although at the moment there is no exact data on victims, the latest provisional figures They already register 14 dead and 250 injured.
To determine the number of victims, “it will take days and days,” estimated Bruno Retailleau, the resigned Interior Minister present on the island since Monday. Added to these statements are those of the prefect of Mayotte who calls the situation “catastrophic” and “worrying.”
On Saturday, local authorities established the violet alert, hours before the cyclone made landfall, forcing the population to confine themselves to their homes, schools or safe places. “Mayotte has never known a situation like this,” stated the departmental council of the archipelago. Despite warnings, the gusts exceeded 220 kilometers per hour destroying everything in its path and turned Cyclone Chido into one of the most violent in the last 90 years.
Mayotte, the poorest department
Mayotte is the poorest department in France and has a large number of irregular migrants. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the irregular population of the island exceeds 100.000 personas, of a total of 320,000 inhabitants. Hence, the situation is worrying for the authorities, since a large part of its inhabitants live below the poverty line in precarious housing that has been “completely destroyed.”
Added to these difficulties is the religious factor since a large part of the population of Mayotte is muslim of sunni rite. This implies that, according to these beliefs, the victims must be buried 24 hours after dying, which complicates the identification and official balance of victims caused by the cyclone for the authorities.
“The situation is extremely serious. We have no news from two thirds of the island,” said the LIOT group deputy in Mayotte, Estelle Youssouffa. More than 15,000 homes are cut offwithout power supply, affecting even local emergency services and their hospitals that are also destroyed. Hence, the Minister of the Interior has deployed the military forces that are already moving to the island with medical supplies, food and basic necessities, despite the difficulties since the control tower at the Mayotte-Dzaoudzi airport has suffered significant damage, and the commercial flights They will resume for “at least ten days,” according to what the prefecture declared this Monday to the AFP agency.
Dying of hunger and thirst
“People are starting to die of thirst and hunger. The priority is to find food and drink for everyone,” said Renaissance senator in Mayotte, Salama Ramai.
He President Emmanuel Macron expressed on Sunday his “solidarity” with the inhabitants of Mayotte, and this afternoon he is expected to meet in a interministerial crisis cabinet together with the minister of the interior.
