‘Definitely several hundred’ killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte

Outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (C) reacts as he addresses the press after a meeting about the situation in Mayotte devastated by the tropical cyclone Chido, at the Interior Ministry Crisis Centre in Paris on December 14, 2024. (AFP)

• A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths

SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION: Local authorities said Sunday that the likely death toll from cyclone Chido’s passage across Mayotte was “definitely several hundred” though the disruption means reaching an exact count will be difficult.
Rescue workers and supplies are being rushed in by air and sea, but their efforts are likely to be hindered by damage to airports and electricity distribution in a territory where even clean drinking water was already subject to chronic shortages.
A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths.
“I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand” deaths, prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.
He added that it would be “very difficult to reach a final count” given that most residents are Muslim, traditionally burying their dead within 24 hours.
The mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, had earlier told AFP that nine people were gravely wounded and fighting for their lives in hospital, while 246 more were seriously injured.
“The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said, adding that the hurricane “spared nothing.”
Mayotte’s 320,000 residents had been ordered into lockdown Saturday as cyclone Chido bore down on the islands around 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Mozambique with gusts of at least 226 kilometers per hour.
Electricity poles were hurled to the ground, trees uprooted and sheet-metal roofs and walls torn off improvised structures inhabited by at least one-third of the population.
Information from the locked-down population, in shock and largely cut off from water and electricity supplies, is slow to filter out, a source familiar with the recovery effort told AFP.
One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads for himself.
Interior Minister Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed to the islands.
Medical personnel and equipment were being delivered from Sunday by air and sea, said the prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometers away on the other side of Madagascar.
A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) with three tons of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including for electricity supplier EDF.
Pope Francis, visiting French Mediterranean island Corsica on Sunday, urged people to pray for Mayotte’s residents.
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit, but suffered only minor damage.
Cyclone Chido later slammed into Mozambique, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain when it made landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said.
Buildings were damaged and power knocked out in some areas of Mozambique’s northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.
But by the afternoon Chido was traveling over the inland province of Niassa and had weakened, said the president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management, Luisa Meque.
UNICEF said it was on the ground to help the people impacted by the storm, which had already caused some damage.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with the government to ensure continuity of essential basic services,” it said in a statement.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fueled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of France’s Meteo France weather service told AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
It warned that some 1.7 million people were in danger, and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on neighboring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
Zimbabwe and Zambia were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.