France rushes aid to Mayotte, with hundreds feared dead and hunger rising after Cyclone Chido

France used ships and military aircraft to rush rescue workers and supplies to its tiny Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Monday after the island group was battered by its worst cyclone in nearly a century. Authorities fear hundreds and possibly thousands of people have died.

Survivors wandered through streets littered with debris, searching for water and shelter after Cyclone Chido leveled entire neighborhoods when it hit Mayotte, France’s poorest department, on Saturday.

“Chaos” is how resident Fahar Abdoulhamidi described the aftermath. In Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, destruction was total: Schools, hospitals, restaurants, and government offices were in ruins.

Hillside villages were reduced to a jumble of snapped trees and piles of corrugated metal and wood. Electricity was down across the archipelago, with only the capital spared, and authorities were concerned about a shortage of drinking water.

The French Red Cross described the devastation as “unimaginable” and said that it was impossible to give an exact number of victims, with rescuers still searching for bodies in the rubble.

Many ignored the warnings issued 12 to 24 hours before the storm hit, underestimating its power.

“Nobody believed it would be that big,” Abdoulhamidi, 46, told The Associated Press by phone. “Those who live in bangas stayed in despite the cyclone, fearing their homes would be looted,” he said, referring to the island’s precarious informal settlements.

Even worse, many migrants who are living in Mayotte illegally avoided shelters out of fear of deportation, Abdoulhamidi added. “Many were trapped in a vicious cycle,” he said.

Authorities used military-style vehicles to clear trees from roads so rescuers and supplies could reach those in need. The damage — including to the main airport — has left some areas still inaccessible to emergency teams, hampering authorities’ ability to assess the devastation and get basic necessities to survivors.

The official death toll was 20, according to television station Mayotte la 1ere, but French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq earlier warned that any current estimates were likely major undercounts “compared to the scale of the disaster.”

More than 20 tons of supplies, including drinking water, hygiene kits and buckets to boil water, were being shipped in from the nearby French territory of Reunion to meet urgent needs, the French Red Cross said.

Those who survived were also starting to go hungry, according to Mayotte Sen. Salama Ramia. She told BFM-TV that many people heading to shelters found dire conditions.

“There’s no water, no electricity. Hunger is starting to rise. It’s urgent that aid arrives, especially when you see children, babies, to whom we have nothing concrete to offer,” she said.

Even as authorities struggled to bring in aid, people began to rebuild, Abdoulhamidi said.

“I heard hammering everywhere I went today,” he said, pointing to the sheer necessity driving those in bangas to reconstruct their homes from scratch.

Mayotte, the poorest place in the European Union, is a densely populated archipelago of around 300,000 people, most of whom are Muslim, that sits between Madagascar and the African continent. Made up of two main islands, it has been under French administration since 1841.

The islands were pummeled by Chido, which brought winds in excess of 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service. It was a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale, and the worst to hit Mayotte since the 1930s, Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said.

Bieuville, the top French government official in the island group, told Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday that the death toll from the cyclone was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands.

But he added it would be extremely hard to count the deaths and many might never be recorded, partly because of the Muslim tradition of burying people within 24 hours. Mayotte is also a destination for people from even poorer countries, like nearby Comoros and Somalia, who may have entered illegally and thus will be hard to track down.

Rescue teams and supplies have been sent from France and Reunion, which is being used as a bridge to get help to Mayotte. However, Mayotte’s main airport remains closed to civilian flights because of extensive damage, leaving only military aircraft able to fly in and out.

Having pummeled Mayotte, the cyclone continued west and made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday. Local media in Mozambique reported that three people died in the country’s north, but that was also a very early count. Aid agencies have warned that more than 2 million people could be affected in the country.

Meanwhile, Comoros President Azali Assoumani said in a statement that the damage to his nation was minor.

In Mayotte, the main hospital suffered extensive water damage to the surgery, intensive care, emergency and maternity departments, according to Darrieussecq, the health minister. Authorities said that efforts were underway to establish a field clinic and deploy 100 additional medical personnel to the territory.

French authorities said that more than 800 more personnel were expected to arrive in the coming days. The French government said that it would use satellite data to assess the damage, prioritize aid and guide rescue teams.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau arrived Monday in Mamoudzou, according to TF1 television. French President Emmanuel Macron was set to host a meeting on the situation at the Interior Ministry’s crisis center in Paris later Monday, his office said.

Mayotte’s people have previously expressed discontent that their archipelago suffers from underinvestment and neglect by the French government.

Around three-quarters of the population lives in poverty, with a median annual disposable income roughly one-eighth that of the Paris metropolitan area, according to the French statistics agency INSEE. The territory has also faced political unrest and rising support for the far-right National Rally party, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with the political status quo.

Last year, the French army moved to quell protests on the islands after a drought and mismanagement led to water shortages.

The French Interior Ministry said that 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers were deployed soon after the cyclone struck to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”

December through to March is cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been hammered by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.