Authorities fear 'several hundred' killed by Cyclone Chido in France's Mayotte
Authorities in the French territory of Mayotte said on Sunday that the death toll from Cyclone Chido could rise to "several hundred" and perhaps "several thousand" after the storm swept across the Indian Ocean island on its way to east Africa.
Issued on: 15/12/2024
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 will likely be hindered by the damage to airports and electricity distribution in the French Indian Ocean territory.
Even before the cyclone's passage, clean drinking water was already subject to chronic shortages.
"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.
"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."
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.
A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths.
And earlier Sunday, the mayor of Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP nine people were fighting for their lives in hospital, while another 246 more had been 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 will be doubly difficult given that France's interior ministry estimates around 100,000 people live clandestinely on 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.
Many had stayed put "until the last minute" when it proved to late to escape the cyclone, she added.
Scramble for supplies
Medical personnel and equipment were being delivered from Sunday by air and sea, said the prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometres away on the other side of Madagascar.
A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 pm local time (1230 GMT) with three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
Authorities in the French territory of Mayotte said on Sunday that the death toll from Cyclone Chido could rise to "several hundred" and perhaps "several thousand" after the storm swept across the Indian Ocean island on its way to east Africa.
Issued on: 15/12/2024
By: NEWS WIRES
01:52
Buildings were destroyed in disaster-hit Mayotte after Cyclone Chido hit the French overseas territory on December 14, 2024. © Daniel Mouhamadi, AFP
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 will likely be hindered by the damage to airports and electricity distribution in the French Indian Ocean territory.
Even before the cyclone's passage, clean drinking water was already subject to chronic shortages.
"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.
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."
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.
A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths.
And earlier Sunday, the mayor of Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP nine people were fighting for their lives in hospital, while another 246 more had been 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 will be doubly difficult given that France's interior ministry estimates around 100,000 people live clandestinely on 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.
Many had stayed put "until the last minute" when it proved to late to escape the cyclone, she added.
Scramble for supplies
Medical personnel and equipment were being delivered from Sunday by air and sea, said the prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometres away on the other side of Madagascar.
A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 pm local time (1230 GMT) with three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
Members of the French Civil Security clean debris after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte on December 15, 2024. © French Civil Security handout photo via AFP
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including for electricity supplier EDF.
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.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 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.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including for electricity supplier EDF.
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.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 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.
Storm hits Mozambique
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 later brought gale-force winds and heavy rain to Mozambique, making landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said.
It damaged buildings and knocked out power in some areas of Mozambique's northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.
But by the afternoon Chido was travelling over the inland province of Niassa and had weakened, said the president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management, Luisa Meque.
UNICEF said it was on the ground 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.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023. They killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
Read more'We lost everything that day': After Cyclone Freddy, Malawi struggles to rebuild
The OCHA 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 were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.
(AFP)
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 later brought gale-force winds and heavy rain to Mozambique, making landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said.
It damaged buildings and knocked out power in some areas of Mozambique's northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.
But by the afternoon Chido was travelling over the inland province of Niassa and had weakened, said the president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management, Luisa Meque.
UNICEF said it was on the ground 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.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023. They killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
Read more'We lost everything that day': After Cyclone Freddy, Malawi struggles to rebuild
The OCHA 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 were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.
(AFP)
Mayotte is France's poorest territory
By AFP
December 14, 2024
One of Mayotte's airports was severely damaged in the storm
- Copyright DGAC/AFP Handout
Jeromine Doux
Cyclone Chido obliterated shantytowns on the French island territory of Mayotte on Saturday, with French ministers fearing a “heavy” death toll from the destruction, which has already claimed two lives.
Acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the storm had left a “dramatic” trail of destruction on the impoverished islands, warning that the territory’s numerous shantytowns had been “completely destroyed”.
“It will take several days” to establish the death toll, but “we fear that it is heavy”, he said as he left a government crisis meeting chaired by France’s newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou.
Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said.
The cyclone had put the region on high alert as it closed in on the African mainland, packing gusts of at least 226 kilometres (140 miles) per hour.
The storm also hit the nearby Comoros islands, causing flooding and damaging homes.
The two confirmed deaths came on Petite-Terre, the smaller of Mayotte’s two major islands, a security source told AFP.
Acting Transport Minister Francois Durovray said on X that Petite-Terre’s Pamandzi airport had “suffered major damage”.
Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said the entire territory’s health system had been “severely affected”, with “major material damage to the Mayotte hospital centre”.
Earlier Saturday, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said an A400M transport plane would be leaving France carrying aid and “civil security” equipment.
Retailleau’s office said he had spoken by phone to the prefect for the territory, ordering “full mobilisation” of police and security services to help residents and “prevent any possible looting”.
– Headed for Mozambique –
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit, though less hard than the neighbouring archipelago, said national civil security chief Abderemane Mahmoud.
The storm flooded mosques, swept away boats and damaged homes on the islands of Anjouan and Moheli.
Comoros President Azali Assoumani had appealed to citizens in an address to “heed the authorities’ instructions better than in 2019”, when Cyclone Kenneth devastated the islands.
“Our country is in a high-risk zone, but we must learn to manage these storms,” he said.
Chido is expected to make landfall early Sunday in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado or Nampula provinces.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of France’s Meteo France weather service told AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
It 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 were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.
– ‘Lost everything’ –
Mayotte, which sits 500 kilometres east of Mozambique, is France’s poorest department.
“Many of us have lost everything,” said prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, calling Chido “the most violent and destructive cyclone we’ve seen since 1934”.
Mayotte’s alert level had been lowered from violet — the highest — to red to allow emergency responders to leave their bases.
But “the cyclone is not over”, Bieuville warned, urging Mayotte’s roughly 320,000 people to remain “locked down”.
Communications with Mayotte are largely cut off.
Earlier, a resident on the main island of Grande-Terre, Ibrahim Mcolo, described fallen electricity masts, roofs ripped off homes and trees uprooted as the first gusts struck.
“There is no more electricity,” he told AFP from his home, where he had barricaded himself in.
“Even in our house, which is well protected, the water is getting in. I can feel it trembling.”
“It is a time of emergency,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, telling Mayotte residents that “the whole country is by your side” and thanking emergency responders.
Retailleau announced that 140 fresh troops and firefighters would be sent to the scene on Sunday to help with recovery, more than doubling the deployment sent earlier in the week.
France orders more deportation flights to Africa from Indian Ocean island of Mayotte
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has ordered local officials in the overseas territory of Mayotte to deport illegal migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo and return them to their home country, taking a hard line as he aims to address the social unrest roiling the Indian Ocean island.
Issued on: 03/10/2024 -
By: NEWS WIRES
French border police inspect a boat off the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte during a patrol to intercept vessels sailing from the neighbouring Comoros archipelago, on February 17, 2024. © Julien De Rosa, AFP
France's interior minister said Wednesday that he had ordered authorities in the French overseas department of Mayotte to arrange deportation flights for African migrants, as Paris seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Mayotte, an Indian Ocean island that is the poorest French department, has long struggled with social unrest and a crippling migration crisis linked to the arrival of thousands fleeing poverty and corruption on the African mainland.
"From October, the prefect of Mayotte... will arrange group flights to escort illegal immigrants back to the Democratic Republic of Congo," Bruno Retailleau, who says his priority is "restoring order", told parliament.
A member of Retailleau's team told AFP that four such flights had already been arranged since February and that "at least three" were planned for October to help empty detention centres in Mayotte.
Cooperation with the authorities in DR Congo over the issue was "excellent", the member of the team added.
Every year thousands of people from the neighbouring Comoros archipelago or mainland Africa try to reach Mayotte, often aboard small "kwassa kwassa" boats, and migrants are now estimated to make up nearly half of Mayotte's population of around 320,000.
The influx has caused major tensions including protests, with many locals complaining about crime and poverty.
Read moreAccessing drinking water ‘a battle’ in French overseas territory Mayotte
Retailleau also announced bilateral security agreements with countries in Africa's Great Lakes region, including Burundi and Rwanda, to "stop the influx" of migrants.
Retailleau, a hardline conservative whose recent appointment reflects the rightward shift in French politics, has said he does not think immigration presents "an opportunity" for France and vowed to use "all levers at our disposal" to bring it under control.
"My only obsession is to be useful to France," he told French daily Le Figaro in an interview published Wednesday. "That is, for me, the only thing that matters."
(AFP)
France's interior minister said Wednesday that he had ordered authorities in the French overseas department of Mayotte to arrange deportation flights for African migrants, as Paris seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Mayotte, an Indian Ocean island that is the poorest French department, has long struggled with social unrest and a crippling migration crisis linked to the arrival of thousands fleeing poverty and corruption on the African mainland.
"From October, the prefect of Mayotte... will arrange group flights to escort illegal immigrants back to the Democratic Republic of Congo," Bruno Retailleau, who says his priority is "restoring order", told parliament.
A member of Retailleau's team told AFP that four such flights had already been arranged since February and that "at least three" were planned for October to help empty detention centres in Mayotte.
Cooperation with the authorities in DR Congo over the issue was "excellent", the member of the team added.
Every year thousands of people from the neighbouring Comoros archipelago or mainland Africa try to reach Mayotte, often aboard small "kwassa kwassa" boats, and migrants are now estimated to make up nearly half of Mayotte's population of around 320,000.
The influx has caused major tensions including protests, with many locals complaining about crime and poverty.
Read moreAccessing drinking water ‘a battle’ in French overseas territory Mayotte
Retailleau also announced bilateral security agreements with countries in Africa's Great Lakes region, including Burundi and Rwanda, to "stop the influx" of migrants.
Retailleau, a hardline conservative whose recent appointment reflects the rightward shift in French politics, has said he does not think immigration presents "an opportunity" for France and vowed to use "all levers at our disposal" to bring it under control.
"My only obsession is to be useful to France," he told French daily Le Figaro in an interview published Wednesday. "That is, for me, the only thing that matters."
(AFP)
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