François-Xavier Bieuville assures us: if Météo France considered the cyclonic trajectory possible, he considered it “certain”. Way, for the prefect of Mayotte, to sweep away the lawsuit for unpreparedness, brought by certain local elected officials while the 101st French department, the poorest in France, is beset by major structural and human difficulties.
“90% of the territory has been heavily impacted, both in public and private infrastructure. When you no longer have a hospital, a prefecture, no more aid stations, no more police stations, no more gendarmerie, no more school, no more town halls, hearing criticism about reactivity is not my subject,” he told L’Express.
L’Express: You are currently touring the island’s towns. What difficulties have residents reported to you?
François-Xavier Bieuville: I started this tour last week, first traveling through the west of the island, from north to south, from Mtsamboro to Kani-Kéli. I promised at that time to renew the initiative every week to maintain regular contact with the mayors. We are now entering a phase of improvement, although the situation in the 17 municipalities of Mayotte remains very disparate. Some localities where the winds blew the most violently remain very isolated, such as Mtsamboro, Acoua and M’Tsangamouji, in the north of the territory. In these types of communities where electricity, water and telephone infrastructure have been damaged, we are racing against time to break the isolation, provide food, water and restore vital functions. . These are our emergency projects.
What percentage of the territory is connected to water and electricity?
At this stage, 40% of the territory is connected to electricity, but this data does not mean much because the situations are very disparate. For example, Chirongui [NDLR : dans le sud de l’île] is 83% connected while the three northern municipalities mentioned above are 0% connected, since the high voltage line has been completely degraded. The situation is similar for water: I can tell you that 50% of the territory has found it, although a certain number of municipalities, including certain villages which compose them, are still without it. We are therefore putting in place alternative means, delivering 100,000 liters of water daily in this area of 320,000 people, or by installing cisterns in certain neighborhoods.
Is there an epidemic risk in Mayotte today?
We are very attentive to this. Since the start of the cyclone, waste has been piling up in communities. We launched an emergency plan with the collection and processing union: I asked the mayors to collect this waste in a single location to facilitate collection while at the same time, state services deploy rodent control solutions to prevent the proliferation of rats, and through them a certain number of diseases.
We are also in the rainy season, the water is stagnant and we must, therefore, be careful of all other mosquito-related diseases such as chikungunya or dengue. Finally, from April to last September, Mayotte experienced a controlled period of cholera. We do not have any proven cases at the moment, but the Regional Health Agency is on war footing to prevent this proliferation from occurring.
How can we ensure the continuity of the State after the cyclone, in this local context usually marked by major structural difficulties?
The two Prefecture sites have been destroyed, so we must operate in degraded mode and with agility. But this is currently possible with the energy, will and commitment of civil servants. I have state services around me which have not failed in any area, despite extremely precarious working conditions. I salute the exemplary and courageous work of the police and gendarmerie, committed to protecting the population; the resilience of firefighters and hospital services who, despite the difficulties, remain at their workstations; the work of social action and emergency action civil servants, in the fields of agriculture and forestry… I am proud to be the prefect of Mayotte at the head of these civil servant services. State and territorial, which work with a sense of the general interest.
The State is however targeted by criticism. Some local elected officials point out the slowness and disorganization of relief efforts in the slums, others deplore the late opening of the field hospital, around ten days after the cyclone… What do you answer them?
It must be understood that 90% of the territory has been heavily impacted, both in public and private infrastructure. When you no longer have a hospital, a prefecture, no more first aid station, no more police station, no more gendarmerie, no more schools, no more town halls, hearing criticism about responsiveness is not my subject. . The prefect’s first mission is to protect and rescue. What I know is that in the first hours after the cyclone, I gave instructions that everything should be done, as far as possible, to help the population, in areas where we could not. physically penetrate. At the same time, it was necessary to organize a health chain to take care of the injured, receive them in emergency centers, distinguish relative emergencies from absolute emergencies, and transport the latter to the hospital.
My second mission was to build a logistics chain – to transport food and water – from the airport and the port which I ensured were intact as soon as the cyclone ended. The first plane landed on Monday. Today, between 12 and 15 planes land per day bringing equipment and personnel. I try to listen to criticism when it is useful in responding to a situation. I put them aside when they are there to undermine our will. I will testify to it when the day comes.
Basically, had the State sufficiently prepared Mayotte for this type of event?
Prevention exists: a month before the cyclone, we organized a conference for the population on the subject of different natural risks. A number of plans were drawn up and others were being prepared. In Mahorese culture, there is a form of ignorance of the cyclonic phenomenon, because Mayotte has experienced few similar episodes: the first in 1934, then in 1984 and the latter, in 2024. The island experienced an alert in 2019 , but the cyclone deviated from its trajectory three days before. In the villages and mosques, the inhabitants explained to me that they had prayed a lot at the time, and that their prayers had been answered. The Mahorais thought that Chido would not arrive.
“The appointment of a Minister of State dedicated to Overseas Territories is a symbolic and important fact”
On December 12, Météo France considered the cyclone trajectory possible; I considered it certain. The preparation with the Mahorese councilors was correct: we organized meetings to ask them to open unconditional emergency accommodation centers – 120 centers were opened in nearly twenty-four hours, 10,000 people were welcomed. Municipal safeguard plans have been activated. Communication was never broken, in orange, red and purple management phases.
Debates continue around the real toll of victims of the cyclone. How do you explain this distrust of official data?
I try to work rationally, not on “hearsay” and other rumors carried by people who, often, do not even live in Mayotte. Today, the human toll stands at 39 deaths – deaths declared in hospital – although this figure is being refined. There is a big difference between a deceased person and a missing person: it is the absence or presence of mortuary remains. The great difficulty is therefore to reconcile the number of deceased people with the number of people said to have disappeared. And to date, I cannot attest to the number of missing people. We continue the work.
What is your methodology for defining the number of people who died, when part of the population is not precisely recorded?
Two days after the cyclone, upon request of reinforcement, I mandated a sub-prefect on an investigative mission in order to understand the number of potential victims and missing persons. It will have the task of investing in all possible channels to establish precise figures. Including the religious system. We have received evidence of the existence of relatively fresh graves, which we can think were dug following the cyclone – in the Muslim tradition, practiced by 95% of the Mahorais, it is common to bury at most quickly the dead people. We are also trying to find out if there were many funeral prayers. But penetrating this environment remains very complex. Following the cyclone, I raised the possibility of several hundred deaths, or even a few thousand. It was a possibility, not a probability. But I don’t want to entertain any fantasy: we haven’t discovered any mass graves.
Has the continuity of the State been altered by the cabinet reshuffle ?
The transitional phase has not changed anything in the continuity of the State. The Ministers of the Interior and Overseas remained in office, managed current affairs and remained, until the reshuffle, my interlocutors. Bruno Retailleau and François-Noël Buffet were immediately at Mayotte’s bedside, and actually came very quickly. I have two ministers who allowed me to decide, who did what was necessary to lead the interministerial crisis unit. So I didn’t ask myself the question.
Overseas now has a Minister of State in the person of Manuel Valls – a former Prime Minister in addition. What is the signal sent back to Mayotte?
This is symbolic and important data, which enhances the place of Overseas Territories in current political perception. New Caledonia of course, Martinique and then Mayotte are now emerging from crises that are certainly different, but symptomatic of the importance of these challenges. Having a Minister of State in a strong position proves that one of the government’s major challenges will be to redeploy these territories in the Republic.
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