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By Adeola Adeosun
Weekend Night Editor
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Cyclone Chido, the strongest storm to strike Mayotte in 90 years, has left "several hundred," possibly thousands, dead in the French territory, devastating an already fragile island chain grappling with extreme poverty and limited infrastructure.
"I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we'll get close to a thousand. Even thousands...given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere.
The Category 4 cyclone brought winds exceeding 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour) when it slammed into the Indian Ocean territory on Saturday.
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The French Interior Ministry has confirmed at least 11 deaths and more than 250 injuries as of Sunday, though officials warn these numbers are likely to rise dramatically as rescue efforts continue.
Referring to the current official death toll, Bieuville said that the "figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums."
Meanwhile, aerial footage shared by French gendarmerie forces revealed widespread devastation, with hundreds of makeshift houses destroyed across the hillsides.
The storm has particularly devastated areas dominated by informal settlements, with Bieuville noting the worst destruction occurred in the slums of metal shacks and informal structures that mark much of Mayotte. Government buildings, the main hospital, and the airport have also suffered severe damage.
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Located nearly 8,000 kilometers from Paris, Mayotte is France's poorest territory and the European Union's (EU) most impoverished region, with 77 percent of its population living below the French poverty line.
The territory, which requires a four-day journey by sea to reach from mainland France, has long struggled with social unrest, gang violence, and this year, a severe water shortage.
The catastrophe has highlighted the particular vulnerability of Mayotte's large undocumented population. According to the French Interior Ministry, over 100,000 undocumented migrants live in the territory, many in precarious housing that proved no match for Chido's fierce winds.
Newsweek contacted the French Interior Ministry via online form on Sunday for comment.
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Beyond immediate storm damage, cyclones bring multiple threats, including flooding and landslides. Stagnant water left in their wake can trigger outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dengue fever, and malaria.
Assessing the full death toll presents unique challenges.
"It's going to be complicated, because Mayotte is a Muslim land where the dead are buried within 24 hours," a French interior ministry official explained. The situation is further complicated by damaged infrastructure limiting access to affected areas.
French authorities have launched a massive emergency response, deploying 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers to assist the population and prevent looting.
Rescuers and firefighters from mainland France and the nearby French territory of Reunion are providing additional support, though damage to the airport's control tower has restricted access to military aircraft only.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his "thoughts" were with the Mayotte people, while Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is due to travel to the territory on Monday.
After an emergency meeting in Paris Saturday night, Retailleau warned the death toll "will be high." New Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office Friday, said infrastructure had been severely damaged or destroyed across Mayotte. Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims while visiting the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Sunday.
An air and sea bridge are being established from Reunion to facilitate the arrival of approximately 800 more rescue workers and more than 80 tons of emergency supplies.
Immediate priorities include restoring electricity and access to drinking water, critical needs in a territory already facing water scarcity before the storm.
The cyclone has continued its destructive path, making landfall in northern Mozambique after battering the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. In Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, home to around 2 million people, UNICEF reports extensive damage to homes, schools, and health facilities.
Chido struck during the region's cyclone season, which runs from December to March. Recent years have seen increasingly devastating storms, including Cyclone Idai in 2019, which killed more than 1,300 people across Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and Cyclone Freddy, which left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.
This article contains additional reporting from The Associated Press.
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