Mayotte residents demand more help from Macron after deadly hurricane By Reuters

Written by Tassilo Hamel

MAMOUDZU (Reuters) – Residents of the storm-ravaged island of Mayotte appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help on Thursday as he toured the outer region where dozens were feared dead in the rubble left by Hurricane Chido.

Some in the crowds gathered outside the airport booed the presidential motorcade, while others said they were grateful for Macron’s visit and urged him to stay longer.

Officials in France were only able to confirm 31 deaths more than five days after the hurricane, but some said they feared there could be thousands more deaths. One lawmaker told Macron that some victims were buried in mass graves. Reuters could not immediately confirm this.

Many areas remain inaccessible. Heavy rains in the capital, Mamoudzou, and other areas exacerbated the plight of thousands of people whose homes in shantytowns were razed to the ground.

As Macron got off a plane carrying food and medical aid, airport workers called for support.

An airport security worker named Asani Haloy told him: “Take your time. Stay with us. Give us solutions.” “Give us emergency assistance, because in Mayotte there is nothing.”

Macron’s office said he would stay on the islands overnight and visit neighborhoods on Friday. It was previously unclear how long he would stay.

Opposition politicians accused his government of neglecting Mayotte, and many residents of poor areas told Reuters they had not received any help since the Chido hit.

One of the men in the hospital told Macron in an angry exchange: “Your services are exhausting.” “Help has not arrived where I live.”

Macron said his government would send more support soon, including 400 additional gendarmes to ensure security, and noted a significant increase in the arrival of food and water by air and sea.

“We all have to come together. From day one, people have gathered day and night. We must not divide ourselves,” he said.

The death toll is unclear

Authorities have warned that it will be difficult to know the death toll in the region, which includes large numbers of illegal immigrants from the Comoros, Madagascar and other countries. Official statistics indicate that Mayotte’s population is 321,000 people, but many say the number is much higher.

Some victims were buried immediately, according to Islamic tradition, before their deaths could be counted.

Health workers say they are bracing for a wave of disease as bodies of the dead remain unburied and people struggle to access clean drinking water.

Estelle Youssoufa, who represents the island of Mayotte in the national parliament, told Macron: “We are facing open-air mass graves, there are no rescuers, and no one has come to retrieve the buried bodies.” It did not mention where the graves were.

Mayotte residents crowded water distribution points and wells to fill jerry cans and buckets. Others washed clothes or washed themselves in rivers.

“When we arrived here, everything was destroyed and nothing was standing,” Yasin Ibrahim told Reuters in Dogani, a poor neighborhood south of Mamoudzou.

“Everything was destroyed,” he said as his relatives combed through the rubble. “Since then, we have started sorting and collecting things little by little, and we will see what we do next.”

Three out of four people in Mayotte live below the national poverty line. While it exports vanilla, coffee and cinnamon, it still relies heavily on support from greater France and attracts relatively few tourists.

“All the pipes are broken everywhere. There is no water in Mayotte anymore. We need water to do housework, cook, wash, and shower. To drink water, we buy it from stores,” Zalta Emadi. 44 said.

“No one tells us whether the water will return tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or a month later. So we are all worried.”

Officials in those countries said that the death toll on the African continent, where the hurricane struck after passing through the island of Mayotte, reached 45 in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.