PARIS (Reuters) – A powerful cyclone slammed into Mayotte early on Saturday, killing at least two people and causing the worst storm devastation to hit the French overseas territory for almost a century, officials said.
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the government had sent 110 civil security military officers and firefighters to its former colony, which lies between Madagascar and mainland Africa, and would send another 140 on Sunday.
“The damage is already very important,” Retailleau added in a post on social media platform X.
Authorities had put the archipelago on high alert and warned residents to stay indoors, with gusts of wind blowing up to about 200 kph (124 mph), Mayotte’s prefect, a top local official, wrote in a post on Facebook.
“Our island is at this moment deeply affected by the most violent and destructive cyclone that we have seen since 1934. Many of us have lost everything,” the prefect said.
The storm, which made landfall in the morning, is expected to remain dangerous as it moves southwest, a weather bulletin said.
The two people who died were on the Mayotte island of Petit-Terre, French media reported on Saturday, citing a security source.
President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and Retailleau all said in social media posts that they were following the situation closely. The prime minister’s office said Bayrou would be participating in a meeting at the Interministerial Crisis Centre.
Local officials in Mayotte did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Located nearly 8,000 km (4,970 miles) from Paris, Mayotte is significantly poorer than the rest of France and has grappled with gang violence and social unrest for decades. Tensions were exacerbated earlier this year by a water shortage.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Helen Popper)
