France rushes aid to Mayotte, with hundreds feared dead and hunger rising after Cyclone Chido

By GERALD IMRAY, THOMAS ADAMSON and RAINAT ALILOIFFA
Associated Press

MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte — France used ships and military aircraft to rush rescuers and supplies to Mayotte on Monday after the tiny French island territory off Africa was battered by its worst cyclone in nearly a century. Authorities fear hundreds and possibly thousands of people have died.

Survivors wandered through streets littered with debris, searching for water and shelter after Saturday's Cyclone Chido leveled entire neighborhoods when it hit Mayotte, the poorest territory of France and — by extension — the European Union.

“Chaos” is how resident Fahar Abdoulhamidi described the aftermath. In Mamoudzou, the capital of the Indian Ocean island group, destruction was total: Schools, hospitals, restaurants, and government offices were in ruins.

Hillside villages were reduced to a jumble of snapped trees and piles of corrugated metal and wood. Electricity was down across the archipelago, with only the capital spared, and authorities were concerned about a shortage of drinking water.

Telecommunications also were severely disrupted, because most antennas were knocked out of service.

The French Red Cross described the devastation as “unimaginable” and said that it was impossible to give an exact number of victims, with rescuers still searching for bodies in the rubble.

Many ignored the warnings issued 12 to 24 hours before the storm hit, underestimating its power.

“Nobody believed it would be that big,” Abdoulhamidi, 46, told The Associated Press by phone. “Those who live in bangas stayed in despite the cyclone, fearing their homes would be looted,” he said, referring to the island’s precarious informal settlements.

Even worse, many migrants who are living in Mayotte illegally avoided shelters out of fear of deportation, Abdoulhamidi added. “Many were trapped in a vicious cycle,” he said.

Authorities used military-style vehicles to clear trees from roads so rescuers and supplies could reach those in need. The damage — including to the territory's sole airport — has left some areas still inaccessible to emergency teams, hampering authorities’ ability to assess the devastation and get basic necessities to survivors. The vast majority of Mayotte’s residents remained without power.

The official death toll was 20, according to television station Mayotte la 1ere, but French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq earlier warned that any current estimates were likely major undercounts “compared to the scale of the disaster.”

More than 20 tons of supplies, including drinking water, hygiene kits and buckets to boil water, were being shipped in from the nearby French territory of Reunion to meet urgent needs, the French Red Cross said.

Those who survived in Mayotte were also starting to go hungry, according to Mayotte Sen. Salama Ramia. She told BFM-TV that many people heading to shelters found dire conditions.

“There’s no water, no electricity. Hunger is starting to rise. It’s urgent that aid arrives, especially when you see children, babies, to whom we have nothing concrete to offer,” she said.

Even as authorities struggled to bring in aid, people began to rebuild, Abdoulhamidi said.

“I heard hammering everywhere I went today,” he said, pointing to the sheer necessity driving those in bangas to reconstruct their homes from scratch.

Mayotte is a densely populated archipelago of more than 320,000 people, according to the French government, most of whom are Muslim. Situated between Madagascar and the African continent, it is made up of two main islands and has been under French administration since 1841.

The actual population may be much higher due to migrants who have entered illegally from nearby Comoros and other nations, with some estimates of those migrants ranging up to 100,000, according to French media.

The islands were pummeled by Chido, which brought winds in excess of  220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service. It was a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale, and the worst to hit Mayotte since the 1930s, Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said.

Bieuville, the top French government official in the island group, told Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday that the death toll from the cyclone was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands.