France rushes aid to Mayotte after Cyclone Chido claimed hundreds of feared lives

CAPE TOWN – France deployed ships and military aircraft on Monday to bring rescuers and supplies to Mayotte after the tiny French island territory off Africa was hit by the worst cyclone in nearly a century. Authorities fear hundreds and possibly thousands of people have died.

Survivors wandered through debris-strewn streets looking for water and shelter after Cyclone Chido leveled entire neighborhoods as it hit Mayotte, the poorest region of France and therefore the European Union, on Saturday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he would declare a national period of mourning and planned to visit in the coming days following “this tragedy that has shocked each of us.”

Mayotte resident Fahar Abdoulhamidi described the aftermath as chaotic. In Mamoudzou, the capital, there was total destruction – schools, hospitals, restaurants and offices were in ruins. According to the French weather service, roofs were torn off houses and palm trees were half sheared by winds of more than 220 km/h (136 mph).

“Mayotte is completely destroyed,” said French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. The ministry estimated that 70% of the population was severely affected.

As of Monday evening, the ministry confirmed 21 deaths in hospitals, with 45 people in critical condition. But French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq warned that any estimates were likely to be significantly too low “compared to the scale of the disaster.”

The power went out across the entire archipelago, only the capital was spared. Telecommunications were severely disrupted and most antennas were out of service. The authorities feared a lack of drinking water.

The French Red Cross described the devastation as “unimaginable” and said rescuers were still searching for bodies. Due to the damage, including at Mayotte’s only airport, some areas are inaccessible to emergency teams.

Many people ignored cyclone warnings in the 24 hours before the storm and underestimated its strength.

“Nobody believed it would be this big,” Abdoulhamidi told The Associated Press by phone. “Those living in Bangas remained there despite the cyclone, fearing their homes would be looted,” he said, referring to the island’s informal settlements.

Worse still, many migrants avoid shelters for fear of deportation, Abdoulhamidi said.

According to the French government, Mayotte is a densely populated archipelago between Madagascar and the African continent with more than 320,000 inhabitants. Most residents are Muslim and French authorities estimate there are another 100,000 migrants from Somalia living there.

“There is no water, no electricity. Hunger begins to increase. There is an urgent need for help to arrive, especially when you see children and babies to whom we cannot offer anything concrete,” Mayotte Senator Salama Ramia told BFM-TV.

Chido was a Category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale and the worst to hit Mayotte since the 1930s, Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville, the top French government official in the archipelago, told Mayotte la 1ere.

Bieuville claimed on Sunday that the death toll was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands. But he added that it was extremely difficult to count deaths and many may never be recorded, in part because of the Muslim tradition of burying people within 24 hours.

Rescue teams and relief supplies were sent from France and Réunion. Daily airlifts are delivering 20 tons of water and food to meet urgent needs, Retailleau said.

Mayotte airport remained closed to civilian flights after its control tower was badly damaged and was not expected to reopen until Thursday at the earliest, authorities said.

According to Health Minister Darrieussecq, Mayotte’s main hospital suffered significant water damage in the surgical, intensive care, emergency and maternity departments. Retailleau said a field hospital would arrive Thursday.

According to the Interior Ministry, 1,500 additional personnel, including 800 civilian and military security teams, were deployed, including 400 gendarmes and engineers for infrastructure repairs.

The ministry said additional police and gendarmerie officers would “assist the population and prevent possible looting.”

The people of Mayotte have previously said their archipelago is suffering from under-investment and neglect by the French government. According to the French statistics agency INSEE, around three quarters of the population live in poverty, with the average annual disposable income being around an eighth of that of the Paris metropolitan region.

The area has also faced political unrest and growing support for the far-right National Rally party, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with the political status quo. Last year, the French army took steps to quell protests after a drought and mismanagement led to water shortages.

After ravaging Mayotte, Cyclone Chido moved further west and hit Mozambique on Sunday, where it killed three people, injured 34 and destroyed classrooms in four schools. In neighboring Malawi, Chido killed two people.

December to March is cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been hit hard in recent years. Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people in 2019, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy killed more than 1,000 people in several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.

The European Parliament observed a minute’s silence for the victims of Chido on Monday. Chamber president Roberta Metsola said: “Mayotte is Europe, and Europe will not let you down.”

___

Adamson reported from Paris and Imray from Cape Town, South Africa. Associated Press writers Tom Nouvian in Paris and Monika Pronczuk in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.