▲ Precarious housing yesterday in the French archipelago Mayotte after the passage of the cyclone Chido. The island is located off the coast of AfricaPhoto Afp
Ap and The Independent
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, December 16, 2024, p. 24
Cape Town, Hundreds of people died as a result of the cyclone Chidothe most powerful in almost a century, which hit the small French archipelago Mayotte yesterday morning, with winds of 200 kilometers per hour, reported the prefect François-Xavier Bieuville.
The cyclone damaged a hospital, homes and government buildings, but the French Interior Ministry warned that it will be difficult to count all the victims.
In turn, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, expressed: My thoughts are with our compatriots from Mayotte, who have gone through the most horrible hours and expressed his solidarity with the families of the victims.
France sent rescue teams and supplies to its largely poor overseas department, which suffered devastation.
The French Ministry of the Interior confirmed in the first hours at least 11 dead and more than 250 injured.
Mayotte, in the southwestern Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa, is the poorest territory in the European Union. It has a population of just over 300 thousand inhabitants spread over two main islands.
Bieuville said the worst happened in the slums of metal shacks and informal structures that mark much of Mayotte.
Entire neighborhoods were flattened, while residents reported many uprooted trees and capsized or sunken boats.
Chad Youyou, a resident of Ham-jago, in the north of the island, posted videos on Facebook showing the extensive damage in his village and in the surrounding fields and hills, where almost all the trees were leveled.
Mayotte is destroyed… we are destroyedhe lamented.
The island has become a focus of undocumented immigration from the nearby Comoros Islands, with more than 100,000 people without papers, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
Later, Chido It hit Mozambique, on the African continent, and it was feared that more than 2 million people in the north of the country could be affected, according to authorities.
Pope Francis offered prayers for the cyclone victims during a visit yesterday to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
In Mozambique, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that Cabo Delgado province, home to around 2 million people, was the first region affected and that many homes, schools and health facilities were partially or completely destroyed.
December to March is cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been hit by several in recent years. In 2019, Idai It caused more than 1,300 deaths, mainly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Freddie Last year, it left more than a thousand dead in several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa.
Studies show that cyclones are getting worse due to climate change. They may leave poor countries in Africa, which contribute only a small amount to global warming, to deal with major humanitarian crises, underscoring the call for rich nations to provide more aid to deal with the impact of natural phenomena.
