Mayotte: Survivors describe the horror of the cyclone

On the night Cyclone Chido hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, Zinedine was at home, a small house made of corrugated iron and wood where he lives with eight of his relatives.

Zinedine had received a warning from the authorities about the cyclone but did not take it too seriously.

“I thought it was like previous years when they warned that a cyclone was coming but it would only rain a little. So we stayed home.''

This time, however, the island was about to be hit by winds of over 124 mph (200 km/h) – the strongest cyclone to hit the island in almost a century

So far, 31 people are known to have died, according to French officials, and thousands are feared missing.

When another, more urgent cyclone warning came in, Zinedine sprang into action.

“I told my mom that they've never sent a message like that before, so I think it's serious this time.”

He suggested they go to his neighbors, a brick-and-mortar house not far from his, in a poor neighborhood high in the hills of Petite Terre on Mayotte, the smaller of the two islands.

But his mother did not want to go and he felt he should stay at home with his family. The 20-year-old tourism student is the eldest boy in his family and feels responsible for them.

When the storm started, he and his mother hid their younger siblings under a table. Then there was a loud noise.

“The iron roof of our house flew off. We panicked and sought shelter. Iron sheets, wood and other large objects were flying everywhere.”

He led his siblings to the neighbor's cabin when he turned and noticed that his mother had not followed him.

“I decided to go back out to get my mom, even though it was dangerous with the wind and everything. I'd rather die than let my mother die.'

His mother stood in the middle of their ruined house, holding a one-year-old baby. She was terrified and wouldn't let go of the baby. Zinedine grabbed it from her hands and ran to give it to the neighbors. Eventually, he had to move his mother out of the house.

“Thankfully we are all safe, but we lost everything. The only thing we managed to save were our papers and diplomas.”

Now he's trying to rebuild his family's home. Finding new building materials is incredibly difficult in Mayotte at the moment due to high demand and he couldn't afford a new roof for his house, so he tracked down some of the corrugated iron sheets that were blown away by the storm and plans to bring them back use them.

“I'm trying to do what I can. Although I'm not a builder, I want to do it myself because I don't know if the authorities will help us.”

Across Mayotte, others like Zinedine try to do the same, the sound of hammers ringing late into the night.

But as resourceful as the people of Mayotte are, they are also angry at the lack of support they say they have received from the government.

During French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to the islands on Thursday, he was booed while trying to give a speech. As he visits a hospital, frustrated staff complain that they are overworked.

Most of the people we spoke to in Mayotte have still not received government aid five days after the cyclone.

“We only received food donations from volunteers who also gave us clothes and water. The town hall tried to help a little, but that's it,” says 18-year-old mother of three Yasmin Musa.

She took her three boys, the youngest of whom is just three months old, to the nearest shelter, a middle school in the Labatoir district, shortly after receiving the storm warning on Friday afternoon.

“On the day of the cyclone, my children cried because of the noise. When we looked outside, we saw tin roofs flying everywhere. They kept asking me what was happening, why everything was breaking,” she said.

“I told them it was just wind and rain, but the next day when they saw everything was destroyed. They couldn't sleep that night.”

When she returned home, she could barely recognize her own neighborhood.

“Mango trees had fallen during the storm and blocked the roads. My neighbor had to point out my house because I didn't even notice it. There was water everywhere, the toilet was broken, my TV, everything was ruined. I tried to save what I could.

“I was in tears, I never thought this would happen.

Now she has nowhere else to go. She says the conditions at the shelter are decent, but she needs a house to take her children to. Now they sleep on mattresses in one of the school's classrooms with a dozen other families.

“It's not normal to sleep like this. The doors don't lock and sometimes strangers come in. I'm worried about my children's safety and that they'll try to steal from us.”

The Red Cross told the BBC there were at least 100,000 people in shelters around Mayotte.

President Macron promised compensation for the uninsured, who make up the majority of the population, but did not say how much they would receive.

The needs are enormous: almost all the islands need to be restored. But some on the political right in France argue that spending too much money in Mayotte will only encourage more undocumented migrants to come to French territory.

Back at La Vigie, Zinedine says he understands their objections but disagrees.

“We are human at the end of the day. And we need help.”