By Aurelien Breeden, Amelia Nierenberg and Isabella Kwai
This week, emergency responders and families have been urgently searching for missing individuals after a storm wreaked havoc on the French territory of Mayotte, located off Africa’s eastern coastline. Authorities are concerned that the death toll could reach into the hundreds or even thousands, significantly surpassing the current recorded figure of 21.
Tropical Storm Chido struck over the weekend, leaving a path of destruction that took out homes, schools, and businesses throughout the tiny archipelago, with wind speeds reaching up to 124 mph. Meteorologists indicated that this was the most severe storm to hit the region in 90 years.
Mohamed Abdallah, a father of seven, shared that they had “lost everything.” While he collected pieces of metal from the streets to rebuild their shelter on Monday, he remarked, “It will take us a long time to even feel safe.”
President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday night to coordinate the government’s response, stating afterward that he will travel to Mayotte soon to announce a national period of mourning.
France is deploying over 1,200 firefighters, security personnel, and rescue workers, and has initiated aid flights carrying several tons of tents, bedding, food, and water from Réunion, another French territory in the vicinity.
The Interior Ministry reported that 21 individuals had died in the hospital and over 1,300 had sustained injuries. However, François-Xavier Bieuville, the highest-ranking official on Mayotte, told a local news station, “I anticipate that there will be several hundred” fatalities.
“We could be looking at near a thousand, or possibly several thousand,” he added.
The Interior Ministry warned that officials might struggle to account for all the casualties. Approximately one-third of the territory’s 320,000 residents do not possess permanent legal status, and many live in precarious conditions, complicating official estimates. Furthermore, many local residents identify as Muslim and traditionally bury their deceased within 24 hours.
In Pamanzi, which is home to Mayotte’s airport and various government buildings, the sound of chainsaws echoed on Monday as emergency personnel hurriedly cleared downed trees and wreckage. Doctors operated in flooded clinics while children slept on mattresses outside homes that had been demolished.
Numerous individuals gathered to collect water from the surviving public taps. Business owners remained closed due to power outages. The cyclone obliterated entire shantytowns, leaving debris from makeshift shelters scattered on the streets.
Patrice Latron, the prefect of Réunion, announced that beginning Tuesday, at least 20 tons of food and water would be flown to Mayotte daily, with at least two ships expected to deliver aid containers later in the week.
“Families have been without food or water since yesterday,” Salama Ramia, a French senator from Mayotte, told French television outlet BFMTV on Monday from the archipelago.
Water usage on the island had already faced restrictions in recent weeks due to a drought. Last year, Mayotte experienced its most severe drought in over 20 years, leading to protests regarding mismanagement and service cuts.
Ramia noted that emergency teams had yet to access some areas that had been razed, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the death toll.
“We fear for what we will uncover,” she stated.
Mayotte, the poorest territory of France, was already facing challenges before the storm hit Saturday. The healthcare system was described as “on its last legs,” according to a 2022 report by the French Senate, which indicated there was only one overwhelmed hospital and a significant lack of doctors.
Approximately 80% of the population falls below the poverty threshold, a figure that is five times higher than in the rest of France. Many residents of Mayotte live in overcrowded shantytowns, particularly hard-hit by the storm. Videos and images showcased the devastation: Homes were wiped out, debris was scattered across the hills, and trees had been torn apart by the winds.
“Some shantytowns were utterly devastated,” Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of Mamoudzou, the capital city of Mayotte, declared on French television on Sunday.
Mayotte has become a central point in contentious French discussions regarding immigration. The rapid population growth has put immense pressure on social services. In recent years, French security officials have stepped up efforts to control illegal immigration and unsanitary living conditions.
Much of the surge in population stems from an influx of immigrants, predominantly from Comoros, a neighboring archipelago recognized as one of the world’s poorest nations.
In February, the French interior minister attempted to make Mayotte less appealing to immigrants by advocating for the termination of birthright citizenship there. This initiative, which critics claimed was a significant violation of French principles and unlikely to deter migrants, was halted when Macron announced sudden elections this summer.
Bruno Retailleau, departing interior minister for France, rejected claims that the authorities were unprepared for the storm, maintaining that the disastrous consequences were largely due to the thousands of immigrants residing in unsafe housing.
“That’s where the vulnerability lies,” he remarked. “But the alert and forecasting systems functioned perfectly.”
Mozambique also faced substantial damage, though the death toll there seems lower: Chido has claimed at least three lives, as reported by local officials to the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
The storm, which has since been downgraded to a depression, is anticipated to dissipate by Tuesday.
Guy Taylor, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Mozambique, indicated that aid teams were dispatched to rural regions in the northern part of the country on Monday to evaluate the circumstances.
There are fears that many of these communities, which already had limited access to clean water and sanitation, would be at risk for cholera outbreaks.
On Monday, families in Mayotte continued to seek to connect with relatives despite mobile and internet services being disrupted. Outages left Mayotte nearly entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring organization.
Numerous individuals shared urgent messages on a Facebook page in hopes of locating loved ones. Some concluded their posts with supportive phrases: “Force à tous,” meaning stay strong.
