“Humanly, it's very hard!”: Manon Corbière from Nîmes launches an appeal from Mayotte to return to mainland France

Une Nîmoise bloquée à Mayotte et qui souhaite revenir dans le Gard livre son témoignage sur la situation. MAXPPP – HANDOUT

Alors que le Premier ministre François Bayrou et plusieurs membres de son gouvernement sont attendus à Mayotte ce lundi 30 décembre après le passage dévastateur du cyclone Chido le 14 décembre, Manon Corbière, Nîmoise, lance un appel pour revenir en métropole.

On Monday, December 30, Prime Minister François Bayrou and several members of his government will visit the people of Mayotte, devastated by the terrible passage of Cyclone Chido on December 14.

A visit that, a priori, will not resolve the problem of Manon Corbière, a woman from Nîmes who has been stuck in Mamoudzou since the disaster and who is appealing to the prefectural authorities to finally return to mainland France. “These are very difficult conditions and it is very hard to see such misery on a human level. […] My file is supposedly not a priority.” In any case, the oenologist from Gard would like to get out of this real nightmare even if she admits that she has had much more luck than those who have lost everything on the spot.

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Registering for a flight to Reunion Island

To take a flight to Reunion Island before going to mainland France, she registered by email with the Mayotte prefecture. That's when she found out she wasn't on the list of priority people. “It's been ten days since I made contact and I still haven't been called. […] I'm from Nîmes, on vacation. I don't see how I could be a higher priority except by breaking a leg! Foreigners have been evacuated by their consulate, as have the sick. People are staying at the airport for several days in the hope of getting a place on this famous list!”

Manon Corbière arrived in Mayotte on December 11th to see a friend who is a teacher living there. They were both then supposed to go and visit Tanzania.

But that was before the destructive passage of Chido three days later… “My friend lives in Mamoudzou in the high valleys. This neighborhood was relatively spared. We only had water in the apartment.”

Rehousing

Manon Corbière was nevertheless able to see the state of the city some time after the disaster: “Recent buildings no longer had roofs or facades. We had a disastrous view of Kaweni, no more bangas (huts, editor's note), devastated premises. We took the road on Sunday morning to see the extent of the damage: the solid houses, villages, vegetation… everything was destroyed. The people are devastated.”

Some residents were collecting sheet metal the next day to build a makeshift shelter. Manon Corbière says that she and her friend were luckier than others with running water every two or three days, and electricity too, “the apartment was on the prison's electricity network. We were lucky to have electricity quickly”. Her friend, a teacher, was able to house acquaintances who had lost their homes.

The Nîmes resident was also able to go to the supermarkets to collect what they needed, such as bags of rice, pasta, and flour. She also had to collect water “in construction site tanks”, to stock up. With her teacher friend, they met those who had lost their homes in a school: “It was anarchy. People were fighting for rice. They were left to their own devices, wearing the same clothes for two weeks. It was to see people in such misery.” The Nîmes resident, moved, is now impatiently awaiting her return to the Gard, far from this open-air nightmare.

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