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Mayotte: “tens of thousands of people” probably “buried under tons of mud,” warns Estelle Youssouffa

By Elisabeth Pierson
Published December 23 at 10:57 a.m., updatedDecember 23 at 11:32 a.m.

MP Liot, a guest on France Inter this Monday, expressed her fears about the scale of the human toll from Cyclone Chido, which devastated many overcrowded shanty towns.

At least 34 dead and around 2,500 injured. Nearly 10 days after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte, this still provisional assessment by the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management is in reality much higher, according to elected representative Estelle Youssouffa . MP Liot of Mayotte's first constituency estimates that the cyclone of December 14, the most devastating to hit the island in 90 years, would have actually caused "several tens of thousands" of missing people by ravaging informal neighborhoods populated by illegal immigrants.

"90% of Mayotte is destroyed, 90% of homes no longer have roofs. We have no water, no food, help is still struggling to reach the areas ," Estelle Youssouffa warned Monday morning, interviewed on France Inter, putting forward a human toll multiplied by the overpopulation in the shanty towns. " We do not know the number of people who died. We estimate that several tens of thousands of people are missing since these areas, which were extremely densely populated, are now almost empty," declared the elected official.

"Helping the living" is the priority

In the poorest department in France, rescue workers have been working to restore essential services such as water, electricity and communications networks. The authorities, who fear a very high number of victims, have launched a search mission to find the missing. According to Estelle Youssouffa, these people " have not disappeared" . "No bodies have been brought back by sea, there is no more vegetation for people to go to the forests. By deduction, these people are buried under tons of mud, rubbish and sheet metal," she reasons. " It is tragic, and this is what everyone must accept."

In this context, the MP believes that the priority is to " help the living", "save the survivors" by coming to the aid of the wounded "across the island" and " not just in the shanty towns" . " I desperately ask that the army be sent to try to prevent us from descending into anarchy", declared Estelle Youssouffa, describing scenes of looting on the fringes of the damage. " We are looting the few houses that simply no longer have a roof. There was not enough help, there is not enough help" , she warned.