France is rushing aid to help the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte by ship and military aircraft after the island was devastated by Cyclone Chido – the worst storm to hit the region in nearly a century.
Rescue teams and medical personnel have been sent to the island off the east coast of Africa from France and from the nearby French overseas territory of Réunion, as well as tonnes of supplies.
The authorities in Mayotte fear hundreds – possibly thousands – of people have died in Cyclone Chido.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has arrived in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, where he told French media: "It will take days and days to establish the human toll".
French authorities say more than 800 more personnel are expected to arrive in the coming days as rescuers comb through the devastation caused by Chido when it hit the densely populated archipelago of around 300,000 people on Saturday.
'Thousands' feared dead
Mayotte's Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville – the top French government official in Mayotte – told local TV station Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday that the death toll was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands.
He said Mayotte’s poor slums of metal shacks and other informal structures had suffered terrible damage and authorities were struggling to get an accurate count of the dead and injured after the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte since the 1930s.
Bieuville added that it would be extremely hard to count all the dead and many might never be recorded, partly due to the Muslim tradition of burying people within 24 hours of their deaths and also because of many undocumented migrants living on the island.
'Definitely several hundred' killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte
Electricity cut, infrastructure destroyed
Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, while public infrastructure like the main airport and hospital have been badly damaged and the electricity supply has been knocked out.
The damage to the airport control tower means only military aircraft can fly onto the island, further complicating the emergency response.
Mayotte is France’s poorest department and is regarded as the poorest territory in the European Union, but it is a target for economic migration from even poorer countries like nearby Comoros and Somalia because of a better standard of living and the French welfare system.
How overseas Mayotte became 'a department apart' within France
Chido ripped through the south-western Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar.
The president of the Comoros has declared a week of national mourning following the passage of Chido over the archipelago.
However, Mayotte was directly in the cyclone’s path and took the brunt of the storm, with Méteo France recording winds in excess of 220 kph, making it a category 4 cyclone – the second strongest on the scale.
Chido hits African mainland
The cyclone made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland late Sunday, where authorities and aid agencies have said more than 2 million people may be impacted.
Further inland, Malawi and Zimbabwe have also made preparations for possible evacuations because of flooding as Chido continues its trajectory over the continent, although the cyclone has weakened as it passes over land.
December through to March is cyclone season in the south-western Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been pummelled by a series of strong storms in recent years.
In 2019, Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Last year, Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.
