French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mayotte to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Chido. Survivors described the catastrophic conditions, with widespread destruction, lack of basic necessities, and fear of a high death toll.
MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a first-hand account of devastation across the French territory.
In the shantytown Kaweni on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, a swath of hillside homes was reduced to scraps of corrugated metal, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of timber marking the frame where homes once stood. A woman who works in the psychological unit became emotional as she described staff becoming exhausted and unable to care for patients.
But the visit took a testy turn when Macron was criticized for being out of touch about what was happening on the ground by a man who said they had gone six days in Ouangani without water or a visit from rescue services. Residents have expressed agony at not knowing if loved ones were dead or missing, partly because of the hasty burials required under Muslim practice to lay the dead to rest within 24 hours.
It is part an archipelago located between mainland Africa’s east coast and northern Madagascar that had been a French colony. Mayotte voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum as the rest of the islands became the independent nation of Comoros
CYCLONE MAYOTTE FRANCE MACRON DEVASTATION
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