‘Several hundreds’ feared dead after Cyclone Chido hits French territory in Mayotte
The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte due to Cyclone Chido is “a few hundred” and could reach thousands, the island’s government official told a local broadcaster on Sunday.
France has rushed rescue teams and supplies to its poorest overseas department in the devastated Indian Ocean.
“I think there are a few hundred dead, maybe we will be close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,” Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told Mayotte la 1ere television station.
He had previously said that it was the worst typhoon to hit Mayotte in 90 years.
Bieuville said it was very difficult to get the exact number of dead and injured after Mayotte was hit by a powerful storm on Saturday, which caused extensive damage to public infrastructure, including the airport, destroyed neighborhoods and cut off electricity.
France’s interior ministry confirmed that at least 11 people had died and 250 were injured early Sunday but said that number was expected to rise significantly.
Mayotte, in the southwest of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, is the poorest island in France and the poorest in the European Union. It has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two large islands.
Bieuville said extensive damage has been seen in the metal shacks and shanty buildings that mark much of Mayotte. Speaking about the official death toll so far, he said “this number is unbelievable when you see the pictures of the slums.”
“I think the population is too high,” he added.
Millions in the region could be affected
Chido blew across the southwest Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was in the path of the typhoon, however, and struggled. Chido brought winds of more than 220 km/h, according to the French weather service, making it a Category 4 typhoon, the second strongest on the scale.
Later, Chido made landfall in the African country of Mozambique, and there were fears that more than two million people in the north of the country could be affected, according to local authorities.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his “thoughts” were with the people of Mayotte, while Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was due to go to Mayotte on Monday. Retaileau warned Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that the death toll “will be high,” while newly elected Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office on Friday, said infrastructure was badly damaged or destroyed everywhere in Mayotte.
Pope Francis prayed for the victims during his visit to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Sunday.
France wants to open the air, the sea bridge to Mayotte
Rescuers and firefighters were sent from France and nearby French territories to Réunion, and supplies were rushed by warplanes and ships. Damage to the airport’s control tower meant that only military aircraft were able to fly in.
Patrice Latron, manager of Réunion, said the authorities intend to establish an air and sea bridge from Réunion to Mayotte. About 800 more were to be shipped in the coming days, and more than 80 tons of supplies had been flown in or were on their way by ship. Some of the priorities are to restore electricity and access to drinking water, said Latron.
France’s interior ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers had been deployed “to help people and prevent possible looting.”
In other parts of Mayotte, entire neighborhoods of metal shacks and shacks were destroyed, while residents reported trees uprooted, boats overturned or sunk and many areas without electricity.
Chad Youyou, a resident of Hamjago in the north of the island, posted videos on Facebook showing the extensive damage to his neighborhood and fields near the hills, where almost all the trees were laid aside.
“Mayotte is devastated – we are devastated,” he said.
A typhoon has hit northern Mozambique
Chido continued its eastward path towards northern Mozambique, where it continued to cause great damage, while inland, closed Malawi and Zimbabwe warned that they may have to evacuate people due to flooding.
In Mozambique, UNICEF said the province of Cabo Delgado, home to about two million people, was the first region to be hit, and many homes, schools and health facilities were partially or completely destroyed.
The spokesman for UNICEF in Mozambique, Guy Taylor, said that communities are facing the possibility of not learning in schools and health centers for many weeks, and the authorities in Mozambique have warned that there is a great risk of landslides.
The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte due to Cyclone Chido could be in the ‘several hundreds’ and could be closer to 1,000, an official of the island’s government told a local broadcaster on Sunday. The storm continued to hit northern Mozambique, where it caused “massive devastation,” UNICEF’s Guy Taylor said.
December to March is typhoon season in the southwest Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been hit by a series of hurricanes in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 people dead in many countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.
These typhoons bring the risk of floods and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water can cause deadly outbreaks of waterborne diarrhea, cholera, and dengue and malaria.
Research says these typhoons are getting worse because of climate change. They could leave poor countries in Africa – which contribute little to global warming – to face major humanitarian problems, underscoring their demand for more aid from rich countries to deal with the effects of climate change.
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