By using this website you agree that we use cookies. You can find out more in the privacy policy.
Bombay Durpun - France fears heavy toll as Cyclone Chido batters Mayotte
-
-
Choose a language
Automatically close in : 3
Wie gewohnt mit Werbung lesen
Nutzen Sie Bombay Durpun mit personalisierter Werbung, Werbetracking, Nutzungsanalyse und externen Multimedia-Inhalten. Details zu Cookies und Verarbeitungszwecken sowie zu Ihrer jederzeitigen Widerrufsmöglichkeit finden Sie unten, im Cookie-Manager sowie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
Use Bombay Durpun with personalised advertising, ad tracking, usage analysis and external multimedia content. Details on cookies and processing purposes as well as your revocation option at any time can be found below, in the cookie manager as well as in our privacy policy.
Utilizar Bombay Durpun con publicidad personalizada, seguimiento de anuncios, análisis de uso y contenido multimedia externo. Los detalles sobre las cookies y los propósitos de procesamiento, así como su opción de revocación en cualquier momento, se pueden encontrar a continuación, en el gestor de cookies, así como en nuestra política de privacidad.
Utilisez le Bombay Durpun avec des publicités personnalisées, un suivi publicitaire, une analyse de l'utilisation et des contenus multimédias externes. Vous trouverez des détails sur les cookies et les objectifs de traitement ainsi que sur votre possibilité de révocation à tout moment ci-dessous, dans le gestionnaire de cookies ainsi que dans notre déclaration de protection des données.
Utilizzare Bombay Durpun con pubblicità personalizzata, tracciamento degli annunci, analisi dell'utilizzo e contenuti multimediali esterni. I dettagli sui cookie e sulle finalità di elaborazione, nonché la possibilità di revocarli in qualsiasi momento, sono riportati di seguito nel Cookie Manager e nella nostra Informativa sulla privacy.
Utilizar o Bombay Durpun com publicidade personalizada, rastreio de anúncios, análise de utilização e conteúdo multimédia externo. Detalhes sobre cookies e fins de processamento, bem como a sua opção de revogação em qualquer altura, podem ser encontrados abaixo, no Gestor de Cookies, bem como na nossa Política de Privacidade.
Cyclone Chido obliterated shantytowns on the French island territory of Mayotte on Saturday, with French ministers fearing a "heavy" death toll from the destruction, which has already claimed two lives.
Text size:
Acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the storm had left a "dramatic" trail of destruction on the impoverished islands, warning that the territory's numerous shantytowns had been "completely destroyed".
"It will take several days" to establish the death toll, but "we fear that it is heavy", he said as he left a government crisis meeting chaired by France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou.
Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said.
The cyclone had put the region on high alert as it closed in on the African mainland, packing gusts of at least 226 kilometres (140 miles) per hour.
The storm also hit the nearby Comoros islands, causing flooding and damaging homes.
The two confirmed deaths came on Petite-Terre, the smaller of Mayotte's two major islands, a security source told AFP.
Acting Transport Minister Francois Durovray said on X that Petite-Terre's Pamandzi airport had "suffered major damage".
Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said the entire territory's health system had been "severely affected", with "major material damage to the Mayotte hospital centre".
Earlier Saturday, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said an A400M transport plane would be leaving France carrying aid and "civil security" equipment.
Retailleau's office said he had spoken by phone to the prefect for the territory, ordering "full mobilisation" of police and security services to help residents and "prevent any possible looting".
- Headed for Mozambique -
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit, though less hard than the neighbouring archipelago, said national civil security chief Abderemane Mahmoud.
The storm flooded mosques, swept away boats and damaged homes on the islands of Anjouan and Moheli.
Comoros President Azali Assoumani had appealed to citizens in an address to "heed the authorities' instructions better than in 2019", when Cyclone Kenneth devastated the islands.
"Our country is in a high-risk zone, but we must learn to manage these storms," he said.
Chido is expected to make landfall early Sunday in northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado or Nampula provinces.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The "exceptional" cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of France's Meteo France weather service told AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
It warned that some 1.7 million people were in danger, and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump "significant rainfall" on neighbouring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
Zimbabwe and Zambia were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.
- 'Lost everything' -
Mayotte, which sits 500 kilometres east of Mozambique, is France's poorest department.
"Many of us have lost everything," said prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, calling Chido "the most violent and destructive cyclone we've seen since 1934".
Mayotte's alert level had been lowered from violet -- the highest -- to red to allow emergency responders to leave their bases.
But "the cyclone is not over", Bieuville warned, urging Mayotte's roughly 320,000 people to remain "locked down".
Communications with Mayotte are largely cut off.
Earlier, a resident on the main island of Grande-Terre, Ibrahim Mcolo, described fallen electricity masts, roofs ripped off homes and trees uprooted as the first gusts struck.
"There is no more electricity," he told AFP from his home, where he had barricaded himself in.
"Even in our house, which is well protected, the water is getting in. I can feel it trembling."
"It is a time of emergency," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, telling Mayotte residents that "the whole country is by your side" and thanking emergency responders.