French Prime Minister François Bayrou has expressed his belief that the death toll from Cyclone Chido, which struck Mayotte on 14 December, will not reach the thousands as initially feared. In a statement to BFMTV, Bayrou emphasized that the “alarmist and sometimes terrifying numbers” circulated in the aftermath of the disaster are unlikely to be accurate.
The confirmed death toll in Mayotte stands at 35, though local prefect François-Xavier Bieuville had earlier speculated that the toll could be in the hundreds or even thousands. Bieuville clarified to France Info radio that, while he initially feared a higher death toll, ongoing investigations in the field are supporting the figure of 35 fatalities.
Bieuville defended his earlier statements, saying, “I have never been alarmist, I was simply unable to give the number of victims.” The difficulty in determining the exact scale of the damage stemmed from the inaccessibility of many areas and the Islamic burial customs, which require victims to be buried within 24 hours.
Mayotte’s population remains a challenge to assess accurately, with the official population listed at 320,000, but estimates suggest an additional 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented migrants may be living on the island.
The cyclone, the most severe to hit the region in 90 years, brought winds of up to 260 km/h (160 mph), causing widespread devastation in areas where residents lived in poorly constructed shacks. In the wake of the storm, the French government declared a national day of mourning on Monday.
Despite the widespread destruction, recovery efforts have made progress. Authorities restored water supplies to key areas on Tuesday, and the fuel shortage that had plagued the island was also alleviated.
Cyclone Chido, after leaving Mayotte, continued its destructive path across Africa, causing 120 fatalities in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.
