After a toll that looks set to be “heavy” by a “cyclone of unexpected violence”, Bruno Retailleau announces that he will be going to Mayotte on Monday

Bruno Retailleau se rendra sur l’île dès lundi. EPA – YOAN VALAT

After the passage of cyclone Chido, Bruno Retailleau and François Bayrou appeared for a press briefing this Saturday, December 14.

After the passage of cyclone Chido in Mayotte, the resigned Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau appeared before the press this Saturday, December 14, where he said he feared that the human toll “would be heavy”, while refusing to give figures at this stage. He will go there on Monday, announced his entourage with the Minister of Overseas Territories François-Noël Barrot. He also announced a reinforcement of 800 people with materials and equipment.

“To assess the situation, (we) must be able to go into the field, inspect the rubble, the precarious housing that has been completely destroyed,” estimated the minister at the end of an interministerial crisis meeting, adding that'”it will probably take days” to “refine” the human toll.

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Prime Minister François Bayrou spoke of a “cyclone of unexpected violence” where all “State services are present and organized”. At least two dead, damage “huge” and the fear that the toll will rise: tropical cyclone “exceptional” Chido wreaked havoc on Saturday in Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean and the poorest department in France.

“It's time for urgency”

“It's time for urgency”, French President Emmanuel Macron declared earlier on X, assuring that “the whole country” was on the side of the Mahorais. The government announced a new dispatch on Sunday of 140 civil security soldiers and firefighters, bringing the number of personnel sent to the site to 250.

Around 100,000 people living in “unsound dwellings”, particularly in sheet metal huts, had been identified in the archipelago by the authorities to be sheltered in more than 70 emergency shelters.

Airport closed

Closed until further notice, the airport, where gusts reached 226 km/h according to Météo-France, has “suffered major damage, particularly to the control tower”, the resigning Minister of Transport François Durovray had indicated earlier on X.

“Traffic will be initially restored with military rescue planes. Ships are being deployed to ensure supplies”, he added.

According to explanations to AFP by François Gourand, a forecaster at Météo-France, cyclone Chido is “exceptional” because it directly hit the archipelago, while its power was boosted by particularly warm waters in the Indian Ocean linked to climate change.

The situation also raises fears of severe water supply difficulties in an archipelago already subject to cuts. The alert level was lowered from purple to red to allow help to pass through, but “the cyclone is not over”, the prefect stressed, calling on the approximately 320,000 inhabitants of Mayotte to remain “confined” and “united” in “this ordeal”.