At least 34 people have been killed by Cyclone Chido in Mozambique since it made landfall on Sunday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday, citing figures from the southern African country’s disaster agency.
“As of 17 December 2024, a total of 174,158 people are estimated to have been affected, with 34 people killed and 319 injured,” OCHA said in a statement.
Mozambique’s National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management described the situation as “heartbreaking”. BBC reportedHe said the death toll would rise. An INGD spokesman told the BBC that most of the dead were hit by falling objects, such as destroyed brick walls.
Chido also destroyed or damaged 35,000 homes, and nine schools and 10 health facilities were damaged. According to initial reports SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre.
Drone footage from Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province showed destroyed homes with thatched roofs near the coast and personal belongings scattered under the few palm trees still standing.
Electricity and communications services were also disrupted, with the state-owned electricity company Electricidade de Moçambique announcing that about 200,000 customers are currently deprived of electricity.
Thousands of people could be killed on the island of Mayotte
Chido made landfall in Mozambique after wreaking havoc on Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean and France’s poorest overseas territory.
French officials said hundreds or even thousands had died on the island of Mayotte, which was hit hardest by Hurricane Chido. It is the strongest storm to hit the region in 90 years.
Ambdilwahido Soumela, the mayor of the capital, Mamoudzo, told Radio France Internationale that so far 22 people have been confirmed dead and about 1,400 others injured. But many parts of Mayotte remain inaccessible, and some victims were buried before their deaths could be officially counted.
“It is impossible to find them all,” Matteo Guzzo, a sports teacher at Buini Miti Labattoire Middle School in the town of Dzozi, told Reuters when asked about the fate of his students.
“Many of them live in a nearby shantytown, and no one can go there.”
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the death toll was likely much higher because about a third of the island’s population was still missing due to poor communications.
Nora Peter, director of communications at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters, “It is a small island with a population of 300,000 people, and because the hurricane disrupted electricity, Internet access and phone lines, about 100,000 people are still missing.”
It may take days to discover the full extent of the destruction. Currently, basic goods, medical and technical staff and police were arriving via air bridge with La Réunion, the only lifeline in the region.
“The priority today is water and food,” Mayor Sumaila said. “There are people who have unfortunately died as the bodies have begun to decompose, which may create a health problem.”
“We have no electricity. When night falls, there are people who take advantage of the situation.”
Dr. Claudia Lodesani from Doctors Without Borders said it was essential to restore access to drinking water to avoid outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.
France’s interior minister arrived in Mayotte on Monday after Cyclone Chido devastated large parts of the archipelago off East Africa, with fears of a high death toll in the densely populated region.
“The pandemic is not inevitable, but there is a very high risk,” she said, adding that even before the storm, access to clean water and health services was difficult in shantytowns, where many migrants live.
“France will quickly repair the hospital, but the situation in the shantytowns is worrying,” Lodesani said.
More than three-quarters of Mayotte’s population of 321,000 live in relative poverty. According to 2021 figures from statistics agency INSEE, the average annual disposable income on the island of Mayotte is just over €3,000 (about $4,500 CAD) per resident, almost eight times less than the Ile-de-France region around Paris.
Concerns about illegal immigrants
On mainland France, the disaster sparked a political row over immigration, the environment and France’s treatment of its overseas territories.
Mayotte has faced turmoil in recent years with many residents angered by illegal immigration – mostly from neighboring Comoros and Madagascar – and inflation.
Undocumented migration has caused Mayotte’s population to rise by an estimated 100,000 over the past 10 years, and the region has become a stronghold for the far-right National Rally party.
Acting French Interior Minister Bruno Ritello, of the conservative Republicans party, told a news conference in Mayotte that the early warning system was working “perfectly” but that many unregistered people did not come to designated shelters.
Other officials said illegal immigrants may have been afraid to go to shelters for fear of arrest.
Left-wing politicians pointed the finger at what they described as the government’s neglect of Mayotte and a failure to prepare for natural disasters linked to climate change.
Meanwhile, the French Ministry of the Interior announced that the curfew will come into effect on Tuesday evening from 10 pm to 4 am local time.
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