With winds of more than 220 km/h , Cyclone Chido - the strongest to hit Mayotte in 90 years - devastated the small French archipelago in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, where about a third of the population lives in completely destroyed shanty towns. The islands are in a race against time to help the victims, struggling with food and water shortages and an unspecified number of missing people to find.
The resigning Interior and Overseas ministers, Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet, are expected in France's poorest department late Monday morning, where authorities fear "several hundred" deaths. But it will be "very difficult" to establish a definitive toll, since Muslim tradition, which is predominant in Mayotte, requires the dead to be buried "within 24 hours," Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville explained on Sunday. In addition, according to the Interior Ministry, the island's clandestine population exceeds 100,000 inhabitants - out of an official population of 320,000 - making a definitive death toll unlikely.
"It's carnage. The court, the prefecture, many services, shops and schools are down," Ousseni Balahachi, a retired nurse, told AFP in Mamoudzou, the 'capital' of Mauritania. The hospital has been flooded and there is a risk that it will not be able to treat the many wounded in good condition. An air and sea bridge has been organised from Reunion Island, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies, to send medical and rescue equipment and personnel. In total, 800 civil defence personnel have been sent as reinforcements, along with a field hospital and satellite transmission equipment.
Visiting Corsica on Sunday, Pope Francis said he supported the victims of this tragedy “in spirit.” Meeting the head of the Catholic Church in Ajaccio, President Emmanuel Macron promised to “act” for the Mahorais. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured that the EU was ready to help France “in the days to come.”
(Unioneonline/vf)
