France’s Poorest Overseas Territory Devastated by Cyclone

Date: 17 December 2024 - 22:09

News ID: ۱۳۴۷۹۹

PARIS/MORONI (Reuters) --
Authorities in Mayotte were racing on Tuesday to stop hunger, disease and lawlessness from spreading in the French overseas territory after the weekend’s devastating cyclone, while Mozambique reported dozens of deaths from the storm.
Hundreds or even thousands could be dead in Mayotte, which took the strongest hit from Cyclone Chido, French officials have said. The storm laid waste to large parts of the archipelago off east Africa, France’s poorest overseas territory, before striking continental Africa.
With many parts of Mayotte still inaccessible and some victims buried before their deaths could be officially counted, it may take days to discover the full extent of the destruction.
So far, 22 deaths and more than 1,400 injuries have been confirmed, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of the capital Mamoudzou, told Radio France Internationale on Tuesday morning.
“The priority today is water and food,” Soumaila said. “There are people who have unfortunately died where the bodies are starting to decompose that can create a sanitary problem.”
“We don’t have electricity. When night falls, there are people who take advantage of that situation.”
France’s interior ministry announced that a curfew would go into effect on Tuesday night from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. local time.
Rescue workers have been searching for survivors amid the debris of shantytowns bowled over by 200 kph (124 mph) winds.
Chido was the strongest storm to strike Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said. In Mozambique, it killed at least 34 people, officials said on Tuesday. Another seven died in Malawi.
Drone footage from Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, already experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to an Islamist insurgency, showed razed thatched-roof houses near the beach and personal belongings scattered under the few palm trees still standing.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday that he would visit Mayotte in the coming days, as the disaster quickly fuelled a political back-and-forth about immigration, the environment and France’s treatment of its overseas territories.
Mayotte has been grappling with unrest in recent years, with many residents angry at illegal immigration and inflation.
More than three-quarters of its roughly 321,000 people live in relative poverty, and about one-third are estimated to be undocumented migrants, most from nearby Comoros and Madagascar.
Left-wing politicians have pointed the finger at what they say is the government’s neglect of Mayotte and failure to prepare for natural disasters linked to climate change.