Emmanuel Macron left Mayotte this Friday, December 20, two days of a visit to the archipelago devastated by the passage of Cyclone Chido. The French president promises to “ rebuild » the archipelago and to deliver aid as quickly as possible. But how many people died in the cyclone? The latest report shows 35 deaths, but there could be many more, hundreds or even a few thousand. The question of the number of dead and missing remains very complicated to establish.
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With our special envoys to Kaweni,
North of Mamoudzou, on the heights of this hill which shelters the largest shantytown in Francethe sound of hammers resonates. The inhabitants of Kawéni are rebuilding their bangas, these small precarious shelters blown away by Cyclone Chido, which hit Mayotte. On the floor, there is crumpled sheet metal, a bed, a table or even a microwave. Here, the gusts of wind swept everything away. Frieze came across one of the victims a few hours after the cyclone hit. “ There was a concrete wall and he fell on him. I was towards the banga, over there. It was the first time I saw a dead person. I heard about two deaths here in total, but I don’t know about the others. », he notes.
To check if there were more deaths in this area of the slum, RFI’s special correspondents went to the neighborhood mosque. In Muslim tradition, all the dead must pass through the burial chamber to be washed before being buried. This is Anli Daoud’s role. “ You can’t send someone without washing them. Here, we received 4 deaths. People who died are brought here. We reported these deaths to the town hall who gave us authorization to bury them. But we don’t know (what it’s like) elsewhere », he explains.
Regions cut off from the world
Four deaths recorded in a very populated slum area. However, the authorities suspect many more deaths in the archipelago. But how is this discrepancy explained? Because Muslim tradition also requires that the dead be buried within 24 hours. In an emergency, a certain number of victims could have been buried just after the cyclone passed without being counted. Then, because many of the residents of the most precarious neighborhoods are undocumented. Their deaths would simply not have been reported to the authorities.
Finally, and above all the most important point: certain regions remain cut off from the world. This is the case in the northwest of Grande Terre or in the south, and this is where the cyclone was the most violent. How many would have died there? To try to see things more clearly, the prefect asked each municipality to list its victims, its missing people.
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