MORONI, Comoros: Comoros on Monday declared a week of national mourning after Cyclone Chido devastated neighboring Mayotte, where the authorities fear “several hundred” deaths, especially in shantytowns populated by many Comorans.
President Azali Assoumani said the mourning period would last until Sunday on the Indian Ocean islands, where a number of people lost their lives and infrastructure suffered “enormous” damage.
Mayotte, a sister island in the archipelago which chose to remain French in two referendums in 1974 and 1976 when Comoros declared independence, was hit by winds of more than 220 kilometers per hour on Saturday. Just 70 kilometers separate the two territories.
Half of Mayotte’s official population of 320,000 is from overseas, according to French government statistics in 2017. Of these, 95 percent were Comoran.
Many people are known to travel to Mayotte clandestinely using canoes.
A source close to the authorities in Mayotte said an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people lived on the island because of irreg- ular immigration.
But few undocumented migrants went to accommodation centers before the cyclone hit “probably for fear of being checked,” the source added.
“All the shantytowns are flattened, which suggests a considerable number of victims,” the source said.
Cyclone Chido is the worst to hit Mayotte in 90 years. Classified as a category four storm — the second highest on a five-point scale — it crossed the small archipelago where about one-third of the population live in makeshift housing.
Meanwhile, France used ships and military aircraft to rush rescue workers and supplies to Mayotte on Monday.
Authorities used military-style vehicles to clear trees from roads so rescuers and supplies can reach those in need.
Electricity supplies and communication lines have been knocked out to large parts of Mayotte, and authorities are concerned about a shortage of drinking water. Meanwhile, the main hospital suffered extensive damage.
People were also starting to go hungry, according to Mayotte Sen. Salama Ramia. She told BFM-TV that many people heading to shelters found dire conditions.
“There’s no water, no electricity. Hunger is starting to rise. It’s urgent that aid arrives, especially when you see children, babies, to whom we have nothing concrete to offer,” she said.
Mayotte, the poorest place in the EU, is a densely populated archipelago of around 300,000 people, most of whom are Muslim, that sits between Madagascar and the African continent.
It was a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale, and the worst to hit Mayotte since the 1930s, Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said.
Bieuville, the top French government official in the island group, told TV station Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday that the death toll from the cyclone was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands.
But he added it would be extremely hard to count the deaths and many might never be recorded, partly due to the Muslim tradition of burying people within 24 hours. Mayotte is also a destination for people from even poorer countries, like nearby Comoros and Somalia, who may have entered illegally and thus will be hard to track down.
Rescue teams and supplies have been sent from France and from the nearby French territory of Reunion, which is being used as a bridge to get help to Mayotte.
