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At least 11 people have died after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte islands, the severest storm to hit the French archipelago in 90 years, according to authorities.
It was difficult to ascertain the exact death toll after the cyclone, which also raised concerns about access to food, water, and sanitation, authorities said on Sunday.
Weather forecaster Meteo France said the cyclone swept through the French territory in the Indian Ocean, bringing winds of more than 200km/h (124mph) and damaging makeshift housing, government buildings and a hospital.
“Everyone understands that this was a cyclone that was unexpectedly violent,” French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters after an evening inter-ministerial meeting on Saturday. Chido was also expected to make landfall on Sunday in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado or Nampula Provinces after battering Mayotte.
Located nearly 8,000km (4,970 miles) from Paris, a four-day journey by sea from France, Mayotte is significantly poorer than the rest of the country and has grappled with violence and social unrest for decades.
Tensions were exacerbated in the territory of 320,000 people earlier this year by a water shortage, as well as attempts to restrict citizenship rights.
“For the toll, it’s going to be complicated, because Mayotte is a Muslim land where the dead are buried within 24 hours,” a French Ministry of Interior official said.
Earlier, acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Chido left a “dramatic” trail of destruction.
“It will take several days” to establish the death toll, but “we fear that it is heavy”, he said as he left a government crisis meeting chaired by Bayrou.
Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said. (Al Jazeera)
