By Tassilo Hummel
MAMOUDZOU (Reuters) -Angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood damaged by Cyclone Chido heckled French President Emmanuel Macron when he toured it on Friday, complaining that food and water had not reached them nearly a week after the storm hit the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Officials in France’s have only been able to confirm 31 fatalities from Chido but some have said they fear thousands could have been killed.
Some of the islands’ worst-affected neighbourhoods, hillside shantytowns comprised of flimsy huts that are home to undocumented migrants, have not yet been accessed by rescue workers.
As Macron walked through the neighbourhood of Tsingoni, residents sweating in the 31-degrees Celsius (88-degree Farenheit) heat, decried a lack of water.
“Seven days and you’re not able to give water to the population!” one man shouted at Macron.
Macron, who had extended his visit to Mayotte to spend more time surveying the damage from the worst storm to hit the territory in 90 years, responded that water would be distributed at city halls.
“I understand your impatience. You can count on me,” he said.
The previous evening, Macron replied more testily to a jeering crowd that chanted for his resignation and accused his government of neglecting Mayotte, which is located some 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from metropolitan France.
“You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be 10,000 times worse off,” he said, using an expletive.
‘WE NEED WATER’
Ali Djimoi, who lives in the Kaweni shantytown on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, said Mayotte had been “completely abandoned” by the French state.
“The water running out the pipes – even if it’s working you can’t drink it, it comes out dirty,” he told Reuters.
Djimoi said eight people in his immediate neighbourhood were killed in the storm, two of whom were quickly buried close to a mosque.
Authorities have warned it will be difficult to establish a precise death toll, in part because some victims were buried immediately, in accordance with Muslim tradition, before their deaths could be counted.
The large number of undocumented migrants from Comoros, Madagascar and other countries also complicates matters. Official statistics put Mayotte’s population at 321,000, but many say it is much higher.
Three out of four people live below the national poverty line in Mayotte, which remains heavily dependent on support from metropolitan France.
Aboubacar Ahamada Mlachahi was one of many people struggling to secure basic needs.
“What matters first is water, for the children. Before fixing the houses, before fixing anything, the daily life… We need water,” he told Reuters.
The 34-year-old construction worker, who is originally from Comoros, said his house was destroyed by the cyclone and he is now squatting on a hillside at Longoni, Mayotte’s freight port.
“Everything is gone,” he said.
The islands, close to the Comoros archipelago, first came under France’s control in 1841. In 1974, Mayotte voted to stay French at the same time the three main Comoro islands opted to form an independent state.
Chido also killed at least 73 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi after reaching continental Africa, according to officials in those countries.
This post is originally published on INVESTING.
