Key points:
- Officials say rescue efforts hindered by damage to airports, electricity distribution
- EU chief Ursula von der Leyen pledges help from the bloc
Saint-Denis De La Reunion, France: Hundreds, and possibly thousands of people are feared dead in Mayotte after the French Indian Ocean territory was devastated by a powerful cyclone.
A senior official said Sunday that the death toll from cyclone Chido’s passage across Mayotte would be in the hundreds, perhaps even thousands, as France rushed in rescue workers and supplies.
Their efforts are being hindered by the damage to airports and electricity distribution.
The island which became an official French colony in June 1843 is located in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South-eastern Africa.
“I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand” deaths, prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.
It would be “very difficult to reach a final count” given that most residents are Muslim, traditionally burying their dead within 24 hours, Bieuville added.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday pledged help from the bloc.
“Our hearts go out to France following the devastating passage of cyclone Chido through Mayotte,” she posted on X. “We are ready to provide support in the days to come.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also offered support, writing on X that his organisation “stands ready to support communities in need of essential health care”.
Thinking of everyone in Mayotte affected by #CycloneChido and of those who may be affected as it moves further. @WHO stands ready to support communities in need of essential health care. https://t.co/T1q9U3lHm0
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 15, 2024
PIROI, the Red Cross organisation in the region, said on X that it was ready to intervene.
Hospitals, schools hit
Earlier Sunday, the mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP nine were in critical condition in hospital, with another 246 more seriously injured.
“The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said. The storm had “spared nothing”, he added.
Establishing an accurate estimation will be difficult given that France’s interior ministry estimates around 100,000 people live clandestinely in Mayotte.
Some of them did not dare to venture out and seek assistance, “fearing it would be a trap” designed to remove them from Mayotte,” said Ousseni Balahachi, a former nurse.
She added that many had stayed put “until the last minute” when it proved too late to escape the cyclone.
The cyclone wiped out makeshift housing in the archipelago’s shantytown, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said late Saturday.
Mayotte’s 320,000 residents were ordered into lockdown Saturday as cyclone Chido bore down on the islands around 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Mozambique, with gusts of at least 226 kilometres per hour.
Electricity poles were hurled to the ground, trees uprooted and sheet-metal roofs and walls torn off the shantytown housing inhabited by at least one-third of the population.
One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads for himself.
Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, with 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed to the islands.
Pope Francis, visiting French Mediterranean island Corsica on Sunday, urged people to pray for Mayotte’s residents. French President Macron promised they would act to help the people there.
Je suis de près la situation à Mayotte.
Mahorais, tout le pays est à vos côtés.
Merci aux services de l’État, aux forces de secours et de sécurité mobilisés. Des renforts sont là, d’autres arriveront demain.
L’heure est à l’urgence. Nous serons là aujourd’hui comme demain.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 14, 2024
Storm Hits Mozambique
Already, on Sunday, medical personnel and equipment were delivered by air and sea.
The prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometres away on the other side of Madagascar, said a first aid plane had landed in Mayotte.
It carried three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including electricity supplier EDF.
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Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit but suffered only minor damage.
Cyclone Chido made Mozambique landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said. The death toll there so far stands at three, said local officials.
UNICEF said it was on the ground in Mozambique to help the people hit by the storm.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with the government to ensure continuity of essential basic services,” it said in a statement.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of the Meteo France weather service told AFP.
Warnings for Malawi
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that some 1.7 million people were in danger, and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on neighbouring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
Zimbabwe and Zambia could also expect heavy rains, it added.
