Mamoudzu, Mayotte — French President Emmanuel Macron went on Thursday to the Mayotte archipelago in the Indian Ocean to survey the devastation caused by Cyclone Chida across France as thousands of people tried to do without essentials such as water and electricity.
“Mayotte has been demolished,” an airport security agent told Macron as soon as he stepped off the plane.
Security agent Assan Khaloi said members of her family, including young children, were left without water, electricity and nowhere to go after the strongest cyclone in nearly a century hit the French territory of Mayotte off the African coast on Saturday.
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“There is no roof, there is nothing. No water, no food, no electricity. We can't even shelter ourselves, we are all wet with our children covering us with whatever we have so we can sleep,” she said, pleading for emergency help. help
Macron was given a helicopter tour of the damage and was due to spend Thursday evening in remote French territory. After flying over the devastation, he headed to a hospital in Mamoudzu, the capital of Mayotte, to meet with medical staff and patients.
Wearing a traditional Mayotte scarf over a white shirt and tie, with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, the French president listened to people asking for help. The medical staff told him that some people did not drink water for 48 hours.
Some residents also expressed anguish at not knowing about those who died or were still missing, in part because of the Muslim practice of burying the dead within 24 hours.
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“We are dealing with mass open-air burials,” Mayotte lawmaker Estelle Yusufou told reporters. “There are no rescuers, no one has come to retrieve the buried bodies.”
Some survivors and aid groups described rushed burials and the stench of the bodies.
Macron acknowledged that many of the dead were not reported. He said the phone line would be repaired “in the coming days” so people could report their loved ones missing.
French authorities said at least 31 people were killed and more than 1,500 were injured, with more than 200 in critical condition. But there are fears that hundreds or even thousands of people have died in total.
Abdu Humadou, 27, said the emergency was needed immediately, not Macron's presence.
“Mr. President, what I would like to say to you … I think that the spending that you have done from Paris to Mayotte is better spent on helping people,” he said.
Another resident, Ahmadi Mohamed, said Macron's visit “is good because he will be able to see the damage for himself.”
“I think then we will get a lot of help to try to get the island back on its feet,” the 58-year-old said.
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Macron's office said four tons of food and medical aid, as well as additional rescuers, were on board the president's flight. A navy ship was due to arrive in Mayotte on Thursday with another 180 tonnes of aid and equipment, the French military said.
People living in large slums on the outskirts of Mamudzu were the worst affected by the cyclone. Many lost their homes, some lost friends.
Nasiru Hamidouni was hiding in his house when the cyclone hit.
His neighbor died when the house collapsed on him and his six children. Hamidouni and others dug through the rubble to reach them.
The 28-year-old father of five is now trying to rebuild his own house, which was also destroyed.
He believes the death toll is much higher than officially reported, given the severity of what he went through.
“It was very difficult,” he said.
Mayotte, located in the Indian Ocean between the east coast of mainland Africa and northern Madagascar, is France's poorest territory.
The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods and many people ignored the warnings, thinking the storm would not be that extreme.
According to the French government, more than 320,000 people live in Mayotte. Most of them are Muslim, and French authorities estimate that another 100,000 migrants live there.
Mayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago that voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum.
Over the last decade, France has seen a massive influx of migrants from neighboring islands – the independent state of Comoros, which is one of the poorest countries in the world.