Heavy toll feared after French territory hit by cyclone, reports suggest at least 11 deaths, damage to properties as an unexpectedly violent cyclone hits French island territory.
French officials are fearing a “heavy” death toll after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte islands, leaving a trail of destruction on the overseas territory located in the Indian Ocean.
Heavy toll feared after French territory hit by cyclone
At least 11 people have been confirmed killed after the cyclone with gusts of high-speed wind barrelled through the French territory, obliterating shantytowns and damaging and destroying government buildings, the hospital and makeshift housing, according to French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou.
It has raised concerns about access to food, water and sanitation on the islands in the Indian Ocean, Bayrou told reporters after an evening inter-ministerial meeting on Saturday.
“Everyone understands that this was a cyclone that was unexpectedly violent,” Bayrou said.
Chido was also expected to make landfall on Sunday in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado or Nampula provinces after battering Mayotte.
Located nearly 8,000km (4,970 miles) from Paris, a four-day journey by sea from France, Mayotte is significantly poorer than the rest of the country and has grappled with violence and social unrest for decades.
Tensions were exacerbated in the territory of 320,000 people earlier this year by a water shortage, as well as attempts to restrict citizenship rights.
Cyclone leaves a dramatic trail of destruction
Acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau added that the cyclone leaves a dramatic trail of destruction.
“It will take several days” to establish the death toll, but “we fear that it is heavy”, he said as he left a government crisis meeting chaired by Bayrou.
Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said.
Thani Mohamed-Soilihi, the junior minister for Francophonie and international partnerships who was born in Mayotte, has not heard from his family or friends on the islands in the aftermath of the cyclone on the French territory hit by cyclone, Bayrou and Retailleau said.
Cyclone heads for African mainland with winds at 140mph
The cyclone had put the region on high alert as it closed in on the African mainland, packing gusts of at least 226km/h (140mph).
French president posts on Twitter saying France will support all its territories impacted by the Cyclone. The Mayotte Islands are amongst the poorest in the French territory. https://x.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1867904255329247381
The storm also hit the nearby Comoros islands
The storm also hit the nearby Comoros islands, causing flooding and damaging homes.
Acting Transport Minister Francois Durovray said on X that Petite-Terre’s Pamandzi airport had “suffered major damage”.
Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was supercharged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of Meteo France weather service.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on 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 neighbouring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
Zimbabwe and Zambia were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.