The interim Minister of the Interior of France, Bruno Retailleau, admitted this Monday from the island of Mayotte that it will still be “days and days” until the authorities can have a clear balance of victims from the ‘Chido’ cyclone, despite the fact that the first estimates tothey point to hundreds of possible deaths.
The prefect of the department of Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, already acknowledged on Sunday that there were expected to be “hundreds” of deaths due to the storm – he even pointed to close to a thousand – but The official count this Monday continued to record only 14 fatalities.
The Ministry of the Interior has announced the sending of some 800 police and firefighters to participate in search tasks and rescue, but it is not clear when more information will be known or if a precise figure will even be known.
The Muslim tradition professed by 95 percent of the population of this overseas territory, located between Madagascar and the southeast coast of continental Africa, requires the burial of the deceased within a maximum period of 24 hours.
“Inoperative” medical centers
Furthermore, the cyclone has caused serious damage to the main hospital, Mamoudzou, which is “very damaged”, as the Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, acknowledged this Monday in statements to France 2. Many medical centers are directly “inoperative”«, Therefore, the transfer of emergency personnel is already being organized from Paris.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has called a crisis meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the Ministry of the Interior to evaluate the response, according to the Elysée, which highlighted that the president “has closely followed” the situation throughout the weekend.
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