With wind gusts of more than 220 km/h, the cyclone, the most intense Mayotte has experienced in 90 years, devastated the small archipelago
Rescue crews in the French archipelago of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean are racing against time to help victims struck by the passage of the deadly Cyclone Chido while at the same time looking for the dead.
Outgoing interior and foreign ministers Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet are expected to arrive in the area late Monday morning in France’s poorest department, where authorities fear “many hundreds” of dead. However, the exact number of dead will be “very difficult” to ascertain, authorities say, because the Muslim tradition, alive in Mayotte, requires that the dead be buried “within 24 hours”, Prefect François explained on Sunday -Xavier Bieuville.
In addition, the territory’s illegal population exceeds 100,000 residents according to the Interior Ministry – out of the roughly 320,000 residents officially counted – making an accurate count of the dead unlikely.
With wind gusts of over 220 km/hCyclone Chido, the most intense Mayotte has experienced in 90 years, ravaged the small archipelago on Saturday where about a third of the population lives in precarious homes that have been completely destroyed. The picture that one sees is of destroyed huts, tin roofs that have been disintegrated, electric poles that have fallen down and trees that have been uprooted. Residents, who were trapped in the passage of the cyclone, discovered, stunned, scenes of chaos. Across the country, many roads are impassable and communications have been disrupted in many cases.
Rescuers expect to find many victims in the ruins of densely populated slums, particularly in the heights of Mamoudzou, said the city’s mayor, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila.
Many victims arrived at shelters on Sunday, said Salama Ramia, a senator from Mayotte. “But unfortunately there is no water, there is no electricity, the hunger is starting to increase, especially when you see children, babies, for whom we have nothing concrete to recommend,” the elected official said.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, assured for her part that the EU is ready to help France “in the coming days”.
Source :Skai
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