Macron extends visit cyclone-hit Mayotte after locals vent anger

French President Emmanuel Macron extended his visit to cyclone-devastated Mayotte on Friday, December 19, after angry residents vented exasperation and despair over the scale of the disaster.

Locals jeered and shouted their grievances Thursday during Macron’s visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago, five days after Cyclone Chido left a trail of destruction in its wake.

“I decided to sleep here because I considered that given what the population is going through,” leaving the same day could have “installed the idea that we come, we look, we leave,” he told reporters late Thursday. “It is a mark of respect, of consideration.”

Emergency teams are still working at full pace, searching for survivors and supplying desperately-needed aid.

A preliminary toll from France’s interior ministry shows that 31 people have been confirmed killed and 2,500 injured. But officials say that, realistically, a final death toll of hundreds or even thousands is likely. Chido also killed at least 73 people in Mozambique, on the African mainland.

As Macron inspected the destruction on the French overseas territory, local people were quick to air their grievances.

“Macron resign,” “you’re talking nonsense,” “water, water, water”, young people and mothers shouted at him on Thursday evening.

Macron finally blurted out: “I’m not the cyclone. I’m not responsible.”

‘I’m disgusted’

During his visit to the Mamoudzou hospital centre, one woman told him: “Nobody feels safe here … people are fighting over water.

One man in the group called the president’s attention to looting, saying thieves could easily enter houses that had had their roofs blown off, despite a nightly curfew.

“Mister President, we fear that this is becoming like Haiti,” he said in a reference to the poverty-stricken, crime-ridden Caribbean country that has been in a state of emergency since March. Later, Macron said they aimed to have supplied all parts of the archipelago with food and water by Sunday at the latest. He said France would rebuild schools, homes and hospitals, and also crack down on illegal immigration.

Macron’s visit came after Paris declared “exceptional natural disaster” measures for Mayotte late on Wednesday. Located near Madagascar off the coast of southeastern Africa, Mayotte is France’s poorest region.

“The tragedy of Mayotte is probably the worst natural disaster in the past several centuries of French history,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said.

Bayrou, speaking later to France 2 television station, set an ambitious target of rebuilding the island in “two years” through a “superhuman” effort.

In response to widespread shortages, the government issued a decree freezing the prices of consumer goods in the archipelago at their pre-cyclone levels. Meteorologists say Cyclone Chido, which hit Mayotte on Saturday, was the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change.

An estimated one-third of Mayotte’s population lived in shantytowns whose flimsy, sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection from the storm.

Assessing the toll is further complicated by illegal immigration into Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, which means that much of the population is unregistered. While Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants, the authorities estimate the actual figure is between 100,000 and 200,000 higher when taking into account undocumented migrants.