By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Corresoondent Worthy News
MAMOUDZOU (Worthy News) – At least hundreds and “perhaps several thousand” people are feared dead after the worst cyclone in almost a century ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, officials said Sunday.
Witnesses said that Saturday’s violent monster storm, named Cyclone Chido, caused “apocalyptic scenes” across France’s poorest islands and the European Union’s most impoverished territory.
Footage seen by Worthy News showed Chido uprooting trees, tearing houses apart, and pounding the impoverished archipelago’s already weak infrastructure.
Initially, 14 were reported dead in Mayotte, but the island’s prefect, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, feared it was many times more. “I think there will be definitely several hundred; perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand,” Bieuville told local broadcasters.
“It will take several days” to establish the full death toll, but “we fear that it is heavy,” he added.
There were concerns the actual death toll may be difficult to ascertain given that most residents are Muslims who traditionally bury their dead within 24 hours.
Many died at home as Mayotte’s 320,000 residents had been ordered into lockdown on Saturday when Chido bore down on the islands, bringing winds of at least 226 kilometers an hour (140 miles per hour), authorities confirmed.
AERIAL FOOTAGE
Aerial footage shared by French security forces showed the wreckage of hundreds of makeshift houses strewn across the hills of one of Mayotte’s islands, which attracted illegal immigration from nearby Comoros.
France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, would travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 160 soldiers and firefighters to join the 110 rescue workers already on the islands.
Additionally, officials in Réunion, another French Indian Ocean territory about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) away, said medical personnel and equipment were on the way by air and sea.
Worthy News learned that a first aid plane landed in Mayotte at about 3:30 p.m. local time on Sunday with three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions, and 17 medical staff. Two military aircraft were due to follow.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart Réunion with personnel and equipment, including for the electricity supplier EDF.
The prefect of Réunion, Patrice Latron, said authorities aimed to establish an air and sea bridge to Mayotte. About 800 more rescuers would be sent in the coming days, and more than 80 tonnes of supplies were flown in or on their way by ship. Priorities included restoring electricity and access to drinking water, he added.
Rescuers also faced an uphill battle to reach possible injured survivors in the area located on the coast of Southeastern Africa, between Northwestern Madagascar and Northeastern Mozambique.
SEVERAL ISLANDS
Mayotte consists of a main island, Grande-Terre (or Maore), a smaller island, Petite-Terre (or Pamanzi), and several islets around these two, underscoring the extensive task ahead for emergency personnel.
Beyond Mayotte, the intense tropical cyclone, which made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday, could affect 2.5 million people in the north of the country.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province, home to 2 million people, had been hit. According to UNICEF, many homes, schools, and health facilities had been partly or completely destroyed.
Cyclone season in the region runs from December to March, and experts say parts of the southeastern Indian Ocean and southern Africa have been hit by a series of strong hurricanes in recent years.
Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe in 2019. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.
According to relief agencies, cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but they also create stagnant pools of water that may later cause deadly outbreaks of cholera, dengue fever, and malaria.
There has been debate about whether people played a role in the situation. Several scientists publicly said “human-caused climate change” played a role, while other experts viewed it as a natural phenomenon.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Israel expanded its military campaign against Hezbollah on Monday, striking more than 70 targets across Lebanon as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to increase pressure on the Iranian-backed terror group following a sharp rise in drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel.
A federal appeals court is weighing whether Kansas City can use its public accommodation ordinance to require Christian counselors to counsel gay married couples despite the counselors’ biblical convictions on marriage and sexuality.
Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians gathered in the Netherlands for one of Europe’s largest multi-day Christian events, with organizers and participants expressing hopes for spiritual revival in the nation and across Europe.
President Donald Trump pushed back Monday against sharp criticism from Republicans and former administration officials over a potential U.S.-Iran agreement, insisting that any final accord must prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or it will not be signed.
President Donald Trump said Monday that countries involved in negotiations over Iran should be required to join the Abraham Accords, signaling that the White House is seeking to turn a possible Iran agreement into a wider regional realignment that includes normalization with Israel.
Tensions remained high in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Sunday after at least tens of thousands of people demanded elections and rallied against what they view as the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Aleksandar Vučić, with violence erupting after the protest and more than 20 people arrested.
Investigations were ongoing Sunday into the killing of three senior Kuki-Thadou Christian church leaders by unidentified gunmen in India’s northeastern Manipur State, Christian investigators told Worthy News.