Dozens, not thousands, of people died in Mayotte due to Cyclone Chido – French Prime Minister

French Prime Minister François Bayrou believes dozens of people died when Cyclone Chido struck the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 14, not thousands as some had feared.

Bayru told BFMTV that he believed “alarming and sometimes frightening statistics have been put forward that will not bear out in reality.”

The confirmed death toll so far in Mayotte is 35, but in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, local prefect François-Xavier Beauville feared it would be “certainly several hundred” and could reach thousands.

The prefect told France Info radio on Tuesday that investigations in the region were progressing well, “allowing us to think that we will confirm this figure of 35”.

Defending his initial comments, Beauville insisted, “I was never concerned, I was unable to tell the number of victims”.

Authorities said the scale of the death toll had been difficult to determine in the wake of the disaster that struck 10 days earlier, because many areas of Mayotte were inaccessible and due to the fact that victims were buried within 24 hours in accordance with Islamic customs. .

There is also uncertainty about the actual population of Mayotte, a French Indian Ocean territory.

Officially it has 320,000 residents, but officials estimate that about 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented migrants may also live there.

“I think (the death toll) will not be in the thousands, but in the dozens,” the prime minister told BFMTV on Monday night.

The archipelago is one of the poorest parts of France, with many residents living in shanty towns.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit the region in 90 years, packing winds of up to 260 km/h (160 mph) and leveling areas where people lived in huts with metal roofs.

France observed a day of national mourning on Monday in the wake of the cyclone. President Emmanuel Macron visited the region last week, and was met with protests by angry locals demanding more aid to the devastated areas.

Some survivors had to live without water, communications or electricity for up to a week.

Beauville said officials restored water to key points in the area on Tuesday. “Even if sometimes it is a little difficult to deliver water, our fellow citizens have water.”

He also said that there is no shortage of fuel now and cars can now be filled.

The Prime Minister had earlier said that a field hospital would also be operational by Tuesday morning.

After hitting Mayotte, Cyclone Chido headed towards continental Africa, killing 120 people in mozambique and 13 in Malawi.