'Definitely several hundred' killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte
World
Chido had proved to be the most violent and destructive cyclone since 1934
PARIS (AFP) - Local authorities said on Sunday that the likely death toll from cyclone Chido's passage across Mayotte was "definitely several hundred" though the disruption means reaching an exact count will be difficult, as fierce winds lashed the French Indian Ocean territory, with authorities warning of severe damage and residents fearing the worst.
Rescue workers and supplies are being rushed in by air and sea, but their efforts are likely to be hindered by damage to airports and electricity distribution in a territory where even clean drinking water was already subject to chronic shortages.
"I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand" deaths, prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.
He added that it would be "very difficult to reach a final count" given that most residents are Muslim, traditionally burying their dead within 24 hours.
The mayor of Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, had earlier told AFP that nine people were gravely wounded and fighting for their lives in hospital, while 246 more were seriously injured.
"The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated," he said, adding that the hurricane "spared nothing".
WORSENING DEATHTOLL
A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had first confirmed 14 deaths.
Across Mayotte, France's poorest department 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Mozambique, "many of us have lost everything," said prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville.
Chido had proved to be "the most violent and destructive cyclone we've seen since 1934," he added.
France's newly-installed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who has yet to name his cabinet, will hold a crisis meeting in Paris on Saturday evening, his office said.
Mayotte's alert level has been lowered from violet -- the highest- -- to red to allow emergency responders to leave their bases.
But "the cyclone is not over," prefect Bieuville warned, urging Mayotte's roughly 320,000 people to remain "locked down".
Communications with Mayotte are largely interrupted.
A resident on the main island of Grande Terre, Ibrahim Mcolo, had earlier described fallen electricity masts, roofs ripped off homes and trees uprooted as the first gusts struck.
"There is no more electricity," he told AFP from his home, where he had barricaded himself in.
"Even in our house, which is well protected, the water is getting in. I can feel it trembling."
"It is a time of emergency," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, telling Mayotte residents that "the whole country is by your side" and thanking emergency responders.
Acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted that 140 fresh troops and firefighters would be sent to the scene on Sunday to help with recovery, more than doubling the deployment sent earlier in the week.
Mayotte's 320,000 residents had been ordered into lockdown Saturday as cyclone Chido bore down on the islands around 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Mozambique with gusts of at least 226 kilometres per hour.
Electricity poles were hurled to the ground, trees uprooted and sheet-metal roofs and walls torn off improvised structures inhabited by at least one-third of the population.
Information from the locked-down population, in shock and largely cut off from water and electricity supplies, is slow to filter out, a source familiar with the recovery effort told AFP.
One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of "apocalyptic scenes" as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads for himself.
SCRAMBLE FOR SUPPLIES
Interior Minister Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed to the islands.
Medical personnel and equipment were being delivered from Sunday by air and sea, said the prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometres away on the other side of Madagascar.
A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 pm local time (1230 GMT) with three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including for electricity supplier EDF.
Pope Francis, visiting French Mediterranean island Corsica on Sunday, urged people to pray for Mayotte's residents.
STORM HITS MOZAMBIQUE
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit, but suffered only minor damage.
Cyclone Chido later slammed into Mozambique, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain when it made landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said.
Buildings were damaged and power knocked out in some areas of Mozambique's northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.
But by the afternoon Chido was travelling over the inland province of Niassa and had weakened, said the president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management, Luisa Meque.
Unicef said it was on the ground to help the people impacted by the storm, which had already caused some damage.
"Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with the government to ensure continuity of essential basic services," it said in a statement.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The "exceptional" cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of France's Meteo France weather service told AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 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.
