Cyclone Chido, with winds of up to 230 kilometers per hour, has devastated the islands of Mayotte. French authorities fear that there are “several hundred deaths”.
France prepares to face one of his worst humanitarian catastrophes this century after the passage this Saturday of tropical cyclone Chido in the Mayotte Islandsin the Indian Ocean. Initial estimates say the cyclone left “hundreds dead” as it passed through the archipelago, which has been completely destroyed by winds that have reached the islands. 230 kilometers per hour. “I think there have been several hundred deaths and perhaps we are approaching a thousand,” Mayotte prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said in statements to the FranceInfo network.
About 100,000 people are without water or electricity, and material damage could increase billions of euros. The mayor of the capital of Mayotte, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, explained that the situation is “an absolute catastrophe” that has affected the archipelago’s marginalized communities. “It is an extremely difficult situation that we have never experienced before,” Soumaila admitted before estimating that the cyclone could perfectly have left behind “hundreds of thousands of victims”, including dead, injured and affected.
The islands that count 320,000 inhabitants and located 8,000 kilometers from Paris, near Madagascar, were destroyed on Saturday. This department, considered the poorest in Francealso has at least 100,000 vulnerable homes, most of which were destroyed on Saturday. The images of the passage of Cyclone Chido show the picture of total devastation in the archipelago, with almost all buildings destroyed.
He international airport Mamoudzou is closed to commercial flights and many roads are also closed. There is a general lack of electricity and drinking water. The French government will send up to 800 police and civilian rescue personnel and humanitarian aid teams in several phases.
The government delegation has decided to lift the red alert so that residents can move freely, after a confinement since this Saturday morning.
Source: EITB
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