35,000 houses in Mozambique have been destroyed, thousands are feared dead in Mayotte, following typhoon Chido.
At least 34 people have been killed by Cyclone Chido in Mozambique since Sunday, the UN organization OCHA said on Tuesday, citing figures from the disaster agency in the southern African country.
“As of December 17, 2024, an estimated 174,158 people were affected, 34 people died and 319 were injured,” OCHA said in a statement.
Mozambique’s National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management (INGD) called the situation “heartbreaking,” the BBC reported, adding that the death toll would rise. An INGD spokesperson told the BBC that most of the dead were hit by falling objects, such as damaged brick walls.
Chido also damaged or destroyed 35,000 houses, affected nine schools and 10 health facilities, according to preliminary reports from the Southern African Development Community’s Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Center.
Drone footage from Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province showed thatched houses along the coast and personal belongings scattered under the few palm trees still standing.
Electricity and communications have also been boosted – state-owned electricity company Electricidade de Moçambique has announced that around 200,000 customers are currently without power.
Thousands may die in Mayotte
Chido arrived in Mozambique after wreaking havoc in Mayotte, an Indian Ocean archipelago and France’s poorest overseas country.
Hundreds or thousands may die in Mayotte, which was hit by Cyclone Chido, French officials said. It is the strongest storm to hit the area in 90 years.
So far, 22 people have died and around 1,400 have been injured, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of the capital Mamoudzou, told Radio France Internationale. But many areas of Mayotte remain inaccessible and some victims were buried before their deaths were officially counted.
Mathieu Gouzou, a sports teacher at Bouéni M’titi-Labattoir middle school in the town of Dzaouzi told Reuters when asked about the fate of his students: “It is impossible to find them all.
“Most of them live in nearby slums, no one can go there.”
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies said the number of victims may be much higher as almost a third of the island’s population has not been identified due to poor communication.
“It’s a small island with 300,000 people, and because the storm knocked out electricity, internet and phone lines, about 100,000 people are still missing,” IFRC communications manager Nora Peter told Reuters.
It may take days to get the full extent of the destruction. Meanwhile, essential supplies, medical and technical personnel and police were arriving by air bridge with La Reunion, the only way of life in the area.
“The priority today is water and food,” said Mayor Soumaila. “There are people who have unfortunately died when the bodies start to deteriorate which can cause a hygiene problem.
“We don’t have electricity. When it gets dark, there are people who take advantage of that situation.”
Doctor Claudia Lodesani of Doctors without Borders said it is important to restore drinking water to prevent the outbreak of cholera and other diseases.
France’s interior minister arrived in Mayotte on Monday after Cyclone Chido ravaged large parts of the East African archipelago, with the death toll feared in the overcrowded area.
“An epidemic is inevitable, but there is a very high risk,” he said, noting that even before the storm access to clean water and health services was difficult in slum areas, where many immigrants live.
“France will repair the hospital immediately, but the condition of the slums is worrying,” said Lodesani.
More than three-quarters of Mayotte’s 321,000 people live in relative poverty. According to the 2021 statistics of the statistical center INSEE, Mayotte has an annual disposable income of just over 3,000 euros (about Cdn 4,500) per citizen, almost eight times less than the surrounding Île-de-France region Paris.
Concerns about undocumented immigrants
On the French mainland, the crisis fueled political conflict over immigration, the environment and France’s management of its overseas territories.
Mayotte has been in turmoil in recent years with many citizens angry over illegal immigration – most of them from neighboring Comoros and Madagascar – and inflation.
Undocumented immigration has increased Mayotte’s population by an estimated 100,000 in the past 10 years, and the area has become a center for the right-wing National Movement.
France’s deputy interior minister Bruno Retailleau, from the Republican party, told a press conference in Mayotte that the early warning system had worked “perfectly” but many unregistered people had not come to shelters.
Other officials said undocumented immigrants may have been afraid to go to shelters because they feared arrest.
Politicians who are members of the left wing have pointed the finger at what they call the negligence of the Mayotte government and failure to prepare for natural disasters associated with climate change.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior of France said that the curfew will come into effect on Tuesday night from 10 pm to 4 am local time.
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