09:20 – Scenes of looting and a feeling of insecurity
Residents of Mayotte told AFP that scenes of looting had taken place in certain industrial zones such as that of Kawéni in Mamoudzou. “We are afraid of being attacked, of being looted,” said a nurse at the Mayotte hospital center on BFMTV, evoking a feeling of insecurity shared by many people. To reassure the population and avoid looting, some 1,600 police officers and gendarmes are mobilized on the ground, the prefect said.
09:14 – A member of parliament from Mayotte shares images of the archipelago
Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa alerted to the situation in the archipelago by reposting on X the images of thousands of homes destroyed on the island. She in turn warns that residents lack water, food, electricity and fear looting. She also calls for the establishment of a state of emergency, the sending of the army, doctors and massive aid.
08:58 – Mayotte hospital “very damaged” and medical centers “inoperable”
The health system and health establishments were seriously damaged by the passage of Cyclone Chido in Mayotte. The resigning Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, specifies on France 2 that the hospital is “very damaged” and that the “medical centers […] are inoperative.” “The hospital suffered significant water damage as well as degradation, particularly in the surgery, resuscitation, emergency, maternity, therefore essential parts of the hospital’s operation (…) despite this it continues to run in a degraded manner,” added the minister.
08:45 – Fear of epidemic proliferation, particularly cholera
Access to water is no longer guaranteed in Mayotte and when water is accessible it is sometimes dirty and unfit for consumption after the passage of the cyclone, these conditions added to the precarious health situation on the archipelago which is is worsened by the cyclone, increases the risk of an epidemic. “We must be on very acute health monitoring” underlines the resigning Minister of Health Geneviève Darrieussecq this Monday morning on France 2: we must “screen for all possible cases of infectious diseases which may occur”, “atypical cases linked to the consumption of water or damaged food (…) we will be very vigilant in this area to provide support and stop any epidemic that could develop.” The proliferation of cholera is particularly worrying when the disease has already made a comeback on the island, as Colonel Alexandre Jouassard indicated on Fanceinfo: “Cholera being present on the island a few weeks ago is necessarily a fear. All these elements are taken into account by civil security as well as by the interministerial unit set up 48 hours ago.
08:29 – A human toll difficult to assess
The Mayotte authorities published a final official report on the morning of Sunday, December 16, estimating the number of deaths at 14 and the number of injured at 250, but the prefect of Mayotte estimates that the final toll will be heavier with “certainly several hundred” dead “even a few thousand”. The same adds that the final assessment will be “very difficult to establish” for several days due to the time needed to search the rubble, but also due to local customs. Part of the Mahorese population is Muslim and their tradition is that the deceased be buried within 24 hours” after the discovery of the body, recalled the prefect.
08:20 – Mayotte devastated by the cyclone, images of the damage
The damage caused by the passage of Cyclone Chido on Mayotte is colossal: entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, particularly in the very large shanty towns in the archipelago, the inhabitants no longer have electricity, no more water and food could come to be missed on site. The images of the damage are impressive, like those recorded by AFP.
Several hundred, even thousands of deaths: the authorities fear a very heavy human toll in Mayotte, the poorest department in France devastated by Cyclone Chido, where relief efforts were reinforced on Sunday by airlift #AFPVertical ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Gi88tT8lYX
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) December 15, 2024
08:15 – A “race against time” in Mayotte
Two days after the passage of Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, the archipelago is experiencing a “dramatic disaster” according to Colonel Alexandre Jouassard of civil security interviewed on Franceinfo this Monday morning: “It’s a race against time since the end of the purple vigilance The missions have started for civil security”, he explains, specifying that the air bridge between Mayotte and Reunion has been in place for 48 hours “to transport freight and human resources”. Thus, “200 civil security personnel [sont] already on site and more than 700 people will connect the island, including health personnel and rescuers. “The urgency is to find the victims and survivors, but also to feed the Mahorais and re-establish communications.