France has activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to help Mayotte, where many fear hundreds or even thousands of people have been killed after the storm that devastated the island last Saturday.
“I can’t let it be said” that “the State would have resigned here” declared the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, who arrived this Thursday in Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to see the extent of the disaster and provide support to the Mahorais, five days after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido .
The head of state announced that he wanted “rebuild” Mayotte with new “criteria” and called to “strengthen the fight against illegal immigration”.
Emmanuel Macron arrived with a small delegation, around twenty doctors, nurses, logisticians and civil security personnel. In addition to four tonnes of food and health freight.
Upon his arrival, Assane Haloi, a security employee at Petite-Terre airport where the head of state landed, urged Macron to extend his stay on French territory and to find solutions and aid. emergency.
“Please, no solutions, but emergency aid, urgently. Take your time, stay with us, give us solutions and emergency aid. There is nothing in Mayotte “she pleaded.
“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 and we cover ourselves with what we have to be able to sleep”she said, asking for emergency help.
Emmanuel Macron boarded a helicopter for an aerial assessment of the damage. He then went to the hospital in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, to meet medical staff and patients. A Navy ship was also expected to arrive with 180 tons of aid and equipment, according to the French army.
Fear of hundreds, even thousands of deaths
Some residents also expressed anxiety at not knowing whether people were dead or missing, particularly due to the Muslim practice of burying the dead within 24 hours.
Estelle Youssoufa, a lawmaker from Mayotte, said: “We are dealing with open-air mass graves. There are no rescuers, no one has come to recover the buried bodies.”
Some survivors and aid groups described rushed burials and the foul odor of the bodies.
Mr Macron acknowledged that many deaths had gone unreported. He said telephone services would be repaired “in the coming days” so that people can report the disappearance of their loved ones.
French authorities have confirmed the deaths of at least 31 people, but the figure is expected to be much higher. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are feared to have died after the cyclone hit the island off the African coast.
It is difficult to establish a precise toll, because the population of Mayotte is made up mainly of Sunni Muslims, who carry out burials within 24 hours, which makes it difficult to determine the number of deaths. There are also fears that many people are still buried under the rubble that litters the island.
Mayotte, located in the Indian Ocean between the east coast of mainland Africa and northern Madagascar, is the poorest territory in France.
The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods as many people ignored warnings, thinking the storm would not be as severe. According to the French government, Mayotte has more than 320,000 inhabitants. Most residents are Muslim, and French authorities estimate that another 100,000 migrants live there.
ADVERTISEMENTMayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago to have voted in favor of joining France in the 1974 referendum. Over the past decade, the French territory has experienced a massive influx of migrants from neighboring islands – the independent nation of Comoros, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Other migrants come from as far away as Somalia, some with the hope of reaching the European continent.
