French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he will travel to Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory, where rescuers are still searching for the hundreds feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century
Cyclone Chido ravaged much of the archipelago in east Africa over the weekend with winds of more than 200km/h, sweeping houses onto hillsides and cutting off telephones, electricity and drinking water.
With areas still inaccessible, France's acting interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said it would take days to determine the full extent of the damage and deaths when he reached the disaster zone.
"Mayotte is totally devastated," he said.
Macron told X that he would visit Mayotte in the coming days and declare a period of national mourning. The announcement came after officials discussed the situation in an emergency meeting Monday.
France used military ships and planes to bring equipment and supplies to the devastated region to provide aid after the cyclone, but the damage has been compounded by years of poverty for which France has been criticized.
On Monday, residents lined up outside grocery stores in search of water and other essentials.
"It's really a landscape of war. I don't recognize anything anymore. There's not a tree left, the hills, there's not a blade of grass, it's extraordinary," Mayotte resident Camille Cozon Abdourazak told Reuters by video call afterward of her power was restored.
"I found an open shop that had water. There were still a few cans of milk left, so I was able to buy a can of milk for my baby and one for my friend's baby next door," she added.
Professor Hamada Ali described streets covered in mud and trees. People were sheltering in schools and bottled water was being used for cooking, he said.
"The houses with tin roofs were swept away by the cyclone," he added.
Communications were cut to much of the territory, leaving relatives outside asking desperately on social media. "I need an update from Chiconi please, my brother, sister in law and niece are there and I've had no news since Saturday," said one.
Retailleau added that rescue teams have been dispatched from Reunion, another French overseas territory, as well as France, and that daily airlifts are delivering 20 tons of water and food.
Acting Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said the capital's main hospital, Mamoudzou, was maintaining operations after floodwaters damaged surgical and intensive care units while a field clinic would be set up and 100 additional doctors would be deployed.
More than three quarters of Mayotte's 321,000 inhabitants live in relative poverty. According to 2021 figures from the statistics agency INSEE, Mayotte has an average annual disposable income of just over 3,000 euros ($4,490 Cdn.) per inhabitant, roughly eight times less than the surrounding Ile-de-France region from Paris
Biggest storm in 90 years
The islands, close to the Comoros archipelago, first came under French control in 1841. Mayotte is made up of two main islands in an area roughly twice the size of Washington, DC.
It has been struggling with unrest in recent years, with many residents angry about undocumented immigration and inflation.
The territory has become a stronghold for the far-right national rally with 60% of votes for Marine Le Pen in the second round of the 2022 presidential election.
Chido was the strongest storm to hit Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said.
Extreme weather events have become more frequent worldwide, in line with global warming. Poorer nations often say they are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis even though they historically emit far less CO2 than richer countries.
"It was clear that ... when a cyclone hit ... we would be in a situation," left-wing lawmaker Eric Coquerel told French broadcaster LCI, saying the destruction in Mayotte highlighted a failure to prepare for the impact of climate change. .
The region had already been weakened by years of drought, which was exacerbated by continued underinvestment and has put scrutiny on France's management of and support for its far-flung territories. In 2023, Mayotte had its driest year since 1997, with residents reporting that taps would only work one day out of three.
Around the territory, hundreds of makeshift houses were smashed and scattered by the cyclone, according to images from local and French media. gendarmerie. Coconut trees crashed into the roofs of buildings, boats overturned, cars covered in debris and people huddled under tables when the cyclone hit.
"I was screaming because I could see the end was coming for me," John Balloz, who lives in Mamoudzou, told Reuters.
The prefect of Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, said at the weekend that the death toll would definitely be in the hundreds and possibly in the thousands.
After Mayotte, Chido made landfall in northern Mozambique, where it weakened rapidly. It was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday but still killed three in Mozambique, destroyed several buildings and killed two people in neighboring Malawi, authorities said.
Mayotte's main airport remained closed to civilian flights on Monday morning, said Jean-Paul Bosland, president of France's National Federation of Firefighters.
The European Parliament held a minute's silence on Monday, with the chamber's president, Roberta Metsola, saying: "Mayotte is Europe, and Europe will not abandon you."
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