“An atomic bomb”, “apocalypse”, “devastation”: The few testimonies from the inhabitants of Mayotte who have been able to reach France this Monday describe a desolate panorama of that Indian Ocean archipelago, destroyed this Saturday after the passage of Cyclone Chido. A catastrophe that leaves at least 20 dead – according to an internal document of the Ministry of the Interior to which public radio FranceInfo has had access -, a count still far from the first estimates, which warned of at least “several hundred dead.”
The acting Minister of the Interior of France, Bruno Retailleau, assured this Monday that It will take “days and days” until we can take stock of the victims on the islands. “In reality, to have a balance (of dead and wounded) it will take days and days, so there is no need to give figures,” Retailleau told a team of soldiers, in a talk recorded by cameras as soon as he landed in Mayotte. this morning.
Due to the high degree of destruction and lack of communication on the islands, the authorities are having serious difficulties in making a reliable count of fatalities in this French overseas territory. On Saturday, the day Cyclone Chido passed leaving wind gusts of up to 220 kilometers per hour, two deaths were announced; on Sunday the 14th, and this Monday the 20th, numbers that, according to the authorities on the ground, are very far from reality.
The only known official ones were those provided on Sunday by the prefect (government delegate) in Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, who, in an interview, had warned that there could be “several hundred dead”, and even “thousands” due to the destruction of the large shanty towns in the territory. He also provided another piece of information that may hinder the accounting of victims: the majority of the 320,000 inhabitants of the islands are of Muslim faith, so, according to their tradition, people have to be buried within 24 hours after their death.
There is “nothing left standing”
“We have the impression that an atomic bomb has exploded,” has transferred to BFM Tahar television, which still has telephone coverage in Mayotte, since the violence of the wind gusts has uprooted the antennas and telecommunications poles. The shanty towns, which house at least 100,000 inhabitants, have been the first victims and have been completely destroyed.
On the other hand, Maxime, 27, told the newspaper Liberation that there was “nothing left standing” in the town of Labattoir, where he has lived for ten years. “It’s horrible, this is like a war landscape, you could say that an atomic bomb passed through here,” has manifested while drawing a parallel between the situation of the islands and those of the video game Resident Evil, with post-apocalyptic overtones.
Chido’s passage has torn off the roofs and has affected public buildings, such as schools, the control tower of the international airport and the hospital in the capital, Mamoudzou. “It has suffered significant flooding, as well as damage, especially in the surgery, resuscitation, emergency and maternity areas, parts that are essential for a hospital (…) Despite this, it continues to function, even if barely” , explained the acting Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, to France 2.
There is also no drinking water or electricity in most of the archipelago, where food is becoming scarce. Roads are closed and the international airport closed to commercial flights. Authorities fear the spread of diseases such as cholera due to the collapse of sewage systems and a resurgence of looting in the most precarious French department, since nearly 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Along these lines, Mayotte senator Salma Ramia, from the Macronist Renaissance party, has urged giving “food and drink” to those affected. “People begin to die of thirst and hunger. There are sick people. Many sleep on the floor“, Ramia, who, due to the general lack of electricity, has managed to charge her mobile phone thanks to her car, reported to the BFM channel.
As aid arrives from metropolitan France, Roads are closed and the international airport closed for commercial flights, at least until Thursday the 19th, according to the regional airline Air Austral. An A400M military plane carrying humanitarian aid landed in Mayotte on Sunday, while another left from the nearby Reunion Island (also under French sovereignty).
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