A race against time is underway in Mayotte. Objective: to help the victims of this French archipelago in the Indian Ocean, devastated by a deadly cyclone, where the authorities fear “several hundred” deaths. The resigning Ministers of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet, are expected this Monday, December 16 at the end of the morning in the poorest department in France. Emmanuel Macron will chair, at the end of the day, a meeting devoted to the Mahoran situation from the interministerial crisis center of the Ministry of the Interior.
In the meantime, humanitarian aid is being organized. An air and sea bridge was set up from the island of Reunion, a French territory 1,400 km away as the crow flies, to send equipment, blood bags and medical and rescue personnel. Nearly 800 civil security personnel are sent as reinforcements, with a field hospital and satellite transmission equipment. Around a hundred doctors, nurses and caregivers from the health reserve “will leave very quickly” to reinforce the medical teams in Mayotte, where the hospital is “very damaged” and the medical centers “inoperative”, announced on France 2 this Monday Geneviève Darrieussecq, the resigning Minister of Health.
Their task will be tough: Cyclone Chido, the most intense that Mayotte has experienced in 90 years, ravaged the small archipelago on Saturday where around a third of the population lives in precarious housing, which has been completely destroyed. Across the territory, many roads are impassable and many communications cut.
Another important mission: ensuring the supply of food and drinking water, insisted Prime Minister François Bayrou after a first crisis meeting. Secours populaire will request its emergency fund and invite the population to make donations. “The action of Secours populaire and its partners will be long-term to support the victims towards a return to normal life,” the association indicated in a press release.
Same speech among the Civil Protection teams, who also launched an appeal for donations. “Our volunteers, on site and from the territory, are working hard to provide support to the affected populations: emergency support, distribution of essential materials, clearing of houses and support for affected families”, we can read on their account Instagram.
Sunday December 15, Christian Pailler, who supervises the action of the Red Cross in the Indian Ocean, announced on Franceinfo sending emergency kits containing tarpaulins, lamps and hygiene products. These kits were ready to be shipped to Mayotte, it remains to be seen which means of delivery will be preferred. “Everything will depend on possible logistics, you need a plane or sea,” explained Christian Pailler. He added that other lots in preparation “are more focused this time on water treatment” and “a modular hospital”. In total, 250 Red Cross volunteers are working on site.
Undocumented people who refused shelter
Rescue teams already on site are trying to find survivors in the rubble. They expect to find many victims in highly populated slums, particularly in the heights of Mamoudzou, according to the city’s mayor, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila. Rescuers “have started working to free access to remote areas”, where “we still hope to find survivors”, added the councilor, who specifies having received “many calls for help”. Many undocumented immigrants from the slums had not joined the shelters provided by the prefecture, “thinking that it would be a trap being set for them […] to pick them up and take them outside the borders,” Ousseni Balahachi, a retired nurse, told AFP.
Many victims reached the accommodation centers on Sunday, reported Salama Ramia, senator from Mayotte. “But unfortunately there is no water, no electricity, hunger is starting to rise. It is urgent that help arrives, especially when you see children, babies, who have nothing to offer. concrete to propose”, alarmed the elected official on BFMTV. “Some of my neighbors are already hungry and thirsty,” also laments Lucas Duchaufour, a physiotherapist living in Labattoir, a town on the island of Petite-Terre. Who notes that all the fruit trees, like the mango trees, have been uprooted. In addition, some 1,600 police officers and gendarmes are mobilized on the ground in particular to “avoid looting”, reported the prefect.
Visiting Corsica on Sunday, Pope Francis said he supported “in spirit” the victims of this “tragedy”. By meeting the head of the Catholic Church at Ajaccio airport, President Emmanuel Macron promised to “act” for the Mahorais. For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, assured that the EU was ready to help France. “We are wholeheartedly with France following the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido in Mayotte. Europe is alongside the Mahorais in this terrible ordeal. We are ready to provide support in the days to come,” he said. she writes about X.