By Tassilo Hummel
MAMOUDZOU (Reuters) – France ramped up its relief operations to its cyclone-devastated overseas territory of Mayotte, with 120 tonnes of food due to be distributed on Wednesday to a population at risk of hunger and disease.
The Indian Ocean archipelago, France’s poorest overseas territory, spent a first night under a curfew decreed in response to reported looting and lawlessness after Cyclone Chido struck over the weekend.
On Wednesday morning, residents of the capital Mamoudzou whose houses survived the storm hammered metal sheets to cover damaged roofs. Thousands of flimsier huts across the city’s shantytowns were razed entirely, leaving fields of dirt and debris.
Hundreds or even thousands could be dead from the cyclone, the strongest storm to hit Mayotte in 90 years, French officials have said. Chido also killed at least 34 people in Mozambique and another seven in Malawi after reaching continental Africa.
But only 22 fatalities recorded in hospital have been confirmed so far due as many areas are inaccessible and some victims could have been buried before their deaths were counted, officials have said.
The situation is made more difficult by uncertainty around the exact size of Mayotte’s population. Official statistics put it at 320,000 but many believe it is higher due to a surge of undocumented immigration, mainly from Comoros and Madagascar.
Health workers say they are bracing for a surge of disease as dead bodies lie unrecovered and people struggle to access clean drinking water. The French government said on Tuesday evening there were no outbreaks at this point.
The government said it was sending in supplies via an air bridge from its other Indian Ocean territory, Reunion Island. Some 100 tons of food were due to be distributed on Wednesday on the larger island of Grande-Terre and another 20 tons on the smaller island of Petite-Terre.
President Emmanuel Macron will visit Mayotte on Thursday. Opposition politicians in France have criticised what they say is the government’s neglect of Mayotte and failure to prepare for natural disasters linked to climate change.
The ferry linking Mayotte’s two main islands resumed services on Wednesday for civilians, allowing some people caught out by the storm to return to their families.
“I haven’t heard a word from my employees in five days,” said a land owner taking the ferry, who declined to give his name. “It’s back to the Stone Age.”
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Writing by Aaron Ross)
