Cyclone Chido, the strongest storm to hit Mayotte in nearly a century, has left the French Indian Ocean territory devastated. Thousands are homeless, critical infrastructure is crippled, and the recovery is expected to take at least a decade.
Speaking to Vatican News Marc Bulteau of the French Secours Catholique says the situation in cyclone-hit Mayotte is “worse than catastrophic” and that it will take at least a decade for the archipelago to recover.
As the death toll continues to rise in Mayotte, a race against time is underway in the archipelago to rescue survivors and provide assistance to the thousands of people left stranded by Cyclone Chido The cyclone, the strongest storm to hit the French Indian Ocean territory in nearly a century, struck Mayotte on Saturday, 14 December, with winds of more than 200 kph damaging housing, government buildings and key infrastructure.Marc Bulteau of Secours Catholique, the French branch of Caritas, describes the situation as “truly apocalyptic”. “Some have compared it to bombed cities,” he told Vatican News. With a population of about 300,000, Mayotte, is the European Union's poorest territory with a third of its inhabitants living in makeshift slums which have been razed to the ground. “This means at least 100,000 people are now homeless, and many of them are undocumented migrants who are often reluctant to go to state-run shelters for fear of being deported later,” explained Bulteau who has been constantly exchanging updates with his teams on-site. In the last few decades thousands of people have attempted to make the crossing from neighbouring Comoros to Mayotte, which has a higher standard of living and access to the French welfare system.The cyclone’s destruction was not limited to informal housing. Even solid structures, including modern buildings constructed to anti-seismic standards, sustained severe damage. Critical infrastructure such as the Mayotte-Dzaoudzi airport, fire stations, hospitals, and major transportation routes have been either severely impaired or made unusable. The airport’s control tower is out of order, limiting landings to military aircrafts delivering ai
CYCLONE MAYOTTE DISASTER RELIEF HOMELESSNESS FRANCE
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