Illegal migrants living in informal settlements on the French island of Mayotte were among those whose lives and livelihoods were most devastated by Cyclone Chido, the tropical cyclone that hit the impoverished Indian Ocean island over the weekend. was.
Authorities on Monday said the death toll was at least 20, but the territory’s governor, François-Xavier Beauville, told local news outlets that “it is likely that several hundred people have died” given the widespread devastation. spoke.
“Maybe closer to 1,000 people,” Beauville said. “Even if it’s just a few thousand people…given the violence of this event.”
Mayotte is home to approximately 300,000 people, with two main islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre, and two smaller, less-populated islands.
The region is one of the poorest in the European Union, with three-quarters of its residents living below the poverty line, but in recent decades around 100,000 people have moved to nearby areas in search of better economic conditions. They come to Mayotte from the African island countries of Madagascar and Comoros.
Many of these people live in informal neighborhoods or shacks on the islands hardest hit by Chido, and aerial footage shows homes “reduced to rubble,” according to CNN.
“What we are experiencing is a tragedy. It feels like we are in the aftermath of a nuclear war,” Mohamed Ishmael, a resident of the capital Mahmud, told Reuters. “I saw whole neighborhoods disappear.”
Mamozu hotel owner Bruno Garcia echoed Ishmael’s comments, telling French CNN affiliate BFMTV: “It’s as if an atomic bomb had fallen on Mayotte.”
“The situation is catastrophic and apocalyptic,” Garcia said. “We lost everything. The whole hotel was completely destroyed.”
Residents of migrant settlements have faced a crackdown in recent years by French police tasked with rounding up people for deportation and demolishing shacks.
The aggressive response to displacement reportedly caused some families to remain in their homes rather than evacuate for fear of being arrested by police.
Today, some of these families’ homes have been completely demolished, their roofs torn off and “engulfed in mud and metal sheets,” said Estelle Youssoufa, Mayotte’s representative in the French National Assembly. ” There are also some.
People in Mayotte’s most vulnerable areas now have no food or safe drinking water as hundreds of rescuers from France and neighboring French territory Réunion struggle to reach victims amid widespread power outages. There is no situation.
“What worries me most is hunger. There are people who haven’t had anything to eat or drink since Saturday,” French senator Salama Lamia, who represents Mayotte, told the BBC. .
The Washington Post reported that the unusually warm waters of the Indian Ocean made Cyclone Chido increasingly powerful and intense, making it just shy of a Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds of more than 255 miles per hour. . Sea water temperatures along the Thousand Degrees Road ranged from 81 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Tropical cyclones typically form when ocean temperatures exceed 80°F.
“Tropical cyclones in the south-west Indian Ocean are increasing in intensity, (and) this is an increase that scientists expect in a changing climate,” said Liz Stevens, a professor of climate risk and resilience at the university. “This is consistent with the fact that warmer oceans lead to more powerful storms.” The University of Reading in the UK told the Post.
People living on islands like Mayotte are particularly vulnerable to climate disasters because they have little protection from powerful storms and because their economic situation leaves them with few options for safe escape when a cyclone approaches. .
“Even though Cyclone Chido’s path was well predicted days in advance, small island communities like Mayotte do not have the option of evacuating,” Stevens said. “There’s nowhere to go.”
