By Michelle Rose
PARIS (Reuters) – Several hundred people, possibly thousands, were killed when the most powerful cyclone in nearly a century hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, a top French local official said on Sunday.
“I think of course there will be a few hundred, maybe we will reach a thousand, even a few thousand,” Prefect Francois-Xavier Biéville told local media channel Mayotte La 1ere.
Asked about the death toll from Cyclone Chido, France’s interior ministry said it would be “difficult to count all the victims” and that a number could not be determined at this stage.
Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte overnight, Meteo-France said, packing winds of more than 200 km/h (124 mph), damaging housing, government buildings and a hospital. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, the forecaster said.
“My thoughts are with our compatriots in Mayotte who have gone through the most terrible few hours and who some have lost everything, lost their lives,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Aerial footage shared by the French gendarmerie showed the ruins of hundreds of makeshift homes scattered over the hills of one of the islands of Mayotte, which has been a hotbed of illegal immigration from nearby Comoros.
Footage from local media shows a mother pushing her newborn’s cot through a flooded corridor at a Mayotte hospital. Overturned police boats lay ashore while coconut trees crashed into the roofs of many buildings.
Over the past few decades, thousands of people have tried to cross from the Comoros Islands, off the east African coast, to Mayotte, which has a higher standard of living and access to the French welfare system.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, Mayotte is home to more than 100,000 undocumented migrants.
It was difficult to determine the exact death toll after the cyclone, which also raised concerns about access to food, water and sanitation, authorities said.
“Because of the tax, it will be difficult because Mayotte is a Muslim land where the dead are buried 24 hours a day,” a spokesman for the French interior ministry said earlier.
Located nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from Paris and a four-day sea journey, Mayotte is significantly poorer than the rest of France and has struggled with gang violence and social unrest for decades.
More than three-quarters of Mayotte’s population live below the French poverty line.
Water shortages sparked tensions earlier this year.
The government said the airlift was built from Reunion Island, another French overseas territory on the other side of Madagascar.
The disaster is the first challenge Prime Minister Francois Bairro has faced since being named by Macron after the collapse of the previous government.
A cyclone hit northern Mozambique on Sunday, but the full extent of the impact is unknown. Internet monitor NetBlocks on X (formerly Twitter) said heavy rain and wind had damaged power and telecommunications infrastructure.
In Comoros, two people were slightly injured, 24 were displaced and 21 homes were destroyed, authorities said.
In 1843, France colonized Mayotte and in 1904 annexed the entire archipelago, including Comoros.
In a 1974 referendum, 95% voted to secede, but 63% of Mayotte voted to remain French. Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohel declared independence in 1975. Mayotte is still managed from Paris.