A week after the passage of Cyclone Chido, France pays tribute to the victims of Mayotte. This Monday, December 23, is declared a national day of mourning. The latest report shows 35 deaths, but how many are there really? The government is not able », if the final results will one day be known. In the meantime, help continues to arrive. But still too little, if any, to the population. This is what RFI special correspondents were able to observe in the Majicavo Koropa slum, north of Mamoudzou. They followed a teacher into the slum who is looking for her students.
2 mins
With our special correspondents in Mamoudzou, Nicolas Feldmann And Jad El Khoury
“ If you see students who were at Majicavo college, you ask them to go down to college. Already, we can give you something to eat, and it’s just a matter of seeing who’s ok. All right ? »
For five days, Sara has been wandering the streets of the slum looking for her students. On her phone, photos, lists of names that she shows to residents: “ Have you seen him? »
“ Yes », replies a resident. “ Where is he? » asks the professor again.“ A little lower », specifies the resident. “ And in the girls, you saw her ? », asks the teacher. To which he replies “ No “.
Of the 1,700 students at this college Mayotte1,400 are missing.
“ They don’t respond. There are several scenarios. First scenario, they no longer have a telephone or no network. Second scenario, they went to take refuge somewhere, but we don’t necessarily know where. Third scenario, they are in an area where they cannot go down to the college, because they are in an area too congested by the damage from the cyclone “, she notes.
But for the teacher, it is impossible to exclude one last option. “ It’s certain that there are people who died. Just look at the sheet metal we have in front of us. I think that even if some had survived the cyclone, they would last a week injured, without drinking or eating. I think we always have victims. »
“ Where have the people gone? », asks Sara.
Off the microphone, residents confide that bodies were buried just after the cyclone hit. Information impossible to verify until emergency services have inspected these informal neighborhoods in search of the missing.
Also readCyclone Chido: is the Mayotte disaster “only” climatic?