MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) – Relatives of families struggling after Wish Cyclone rushed through the French island region of Mayotte they expressed their lack of aid on Wednesday, a day before the French president and another 180 tons of aid were expected to arrive.
Some survivors and aid groups have described hasty burials, the pile-up of bodies and the destruction of fragile informal settlements that the number of migrants make even more challenging to determine the number of dead.
Mayotte is in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa The poorest region in France and a magnet for migrants hoping to reach Europe. Already, the French interior minister this week has proposed a crackdown.
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Saturday's cyclone was the deadliest storm to hit the area in nearly a century. It destroyed entire neighborhoods on the island cluster with winds of more than 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service. Many people had ignored the cyclone warnings, thinking that the storm would not be so terrible.
Now residents pick their way across the landscape in search of water and food as telecommunications are still scarce and even strongly built structures including health centers have been destroyed. to destroy
French Prime Minister François Bayrou said on Tuesday that more than 1,500 people were injured, including more than 200 critically, but authorities fear that hundreds and possibly thousands of people have died.
On the French island of Reunion about a three-hour flight away, loved ones were coming together to support the survivors. Some said their families had no food or water in Mayotte and that roofs had been blown off houses. It took days to communicate with some.
“It's hard because I feel helpless,” said Khayra Djoumoi Thany, 19.
Anrafa Parassouramin also has family in Mayotte. “We are also afraid of disease outbreaks, because people are drinking water wherever they can get it, and it may not be potable water,” she said.
Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq has raised concerns about the threat of a cholera epidemic on the islands that earlier this year had emerged of a form of the disease that was highly resistant to drugs.
French authorities said the release of 23 tons of water began on Wednesday.
The French minister for foreign affairs, François-Noël Buffet, told France's Europe 1 radio that aid brought by plane has begun to be distributed to locations across Mayotte.
The minister said the water supply system was “working at 50%” and posed a risk of “poor quality.” The electricity was partially restored.
The Mayotte hospital was badly damaged. A field hospital should be operational early next week, Buffet said.
A Navy ship was expected to arrive in Mayotte on Thursday with 180 tons of aid and equipment, according to the French military.
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Mayotte on Thursday to visit a hospital and a devastated area, his office said. “Our relatives are living through the worst just a few thousand kilometers away,” Macron said in a statement.
Some residents of Mayotte have long criticized the French government for neglect.
On Tuesday night, a program on public broadcaster France 2 raised 5 million euros ($5.24 million) in aid of Mayotte through the Foundation of France charity, the channel said.
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Corbet reported from Paris.
