French President Emmanuel Macron has concluded his visit to the overseas territory of Mayotte, on the southeast coast of Africa, after examining first-hand the devastating effects of Cyclone Chido last weekend. A visit that ended this Friday with a tense exchange of words with the survivors of the tragedy, who they scolded in public to the French leader after denouncing the marginalization to which they have been subjected for decades by continental France as a factor that has aggravated the tragedy. . «If you confront people, we are screwed«Macron replied. “If this place wasn’t France, you would be 10,000 times worse off.”
8,000 kilometers from France, north of the Mozambique Channel, north of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean, the Mayotte Islands is the poorest territory in France, from afar. And after the passage of Cyclone Chido, more than a third of the inhabitants are victims of the destruction of their homes (shanties, the vast majority), the death of all or several of the members of each family, the most tragic desolation due to roads, public buildings, schools, hospitals.
“Today you come to tell us that everything is going well, when everything is going wrong,” a resident reproached the French president during a visit to the town of Pamandzi, on the island of Petite-Terre, one of those that make up the archipelago, among cries of “resignation.” «What resources are you going to give us? Because until now my family doesn’t know if I’m alive or dead! “We are going to count the deaths in the neighborhoods, Mr. President,” he added at the beginning of a discussion reported by the French network Brut.
In response, Macron asked the population to exercise unity. «If you confront people, we are screwed«he answered. “If this place wasn’t France, you would be 10,000 times worse off.”
Almost a week after the cyclone passed, the authorities maintain a official figure of 31 deaths although the prefect of the territory, François-Xavier Bieuville, already anticipated last weekend that the cyclone would have left with complete certainty “hundreds of dead” that could be “thousands” amid enormous difficulties in carrying out an exact count because the population, Muslim majority, began burying victims 24 hours after the cyclone and because there are more than 100,000 people living without papers in the archipelago.
Shortly before his departure, the French head of state chaired a crisis unit by videoconference with his ministers in Paris, including Prime Minister François Bayrou. Macron is already heading to Djibouti, where he will participate in a Christmas meal with the French troops stationed there.
#Macron #loses #temper #Mayotte #France #times #screwed
