Angry residents of Mayotte in France shouted out their grievances to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as he visited the island, five days after it was devastated by a cyclone.
High on their list was the lack of water and food, and the fear of looting. Macron, in the French overseas territory on Thursday to assess the destruction wreaked by Cyclone Chido, said he would extend his trip by a day so he could inspect remote areas of the Indian Ocean archipelago. He has declared a national day of mourning on Monday.
Emergency teams were still searching for survivors and supplying desperately needed aid.
“Mr President, nobody feels safe here,” one woman told Macron during his visit to the Mamoudzou hospital centre. “People are fighting over water.”
As Macron talked to hospital workers, one staff member said under her breath: “Two more days and we won’t be able to feed the patients any more. I’m disgusted.”
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One man in the group called the president’s attention to looting, saying thieves could easily enter houses that had had their roofs blown off, despite the nightly curfew.
“Mr President, we fear that this is becoming like Haiti,” he said, referring to the poverty-stricken, crime-ridden Caribbean country that has been in a state of emergency since March.
Macron responded by promising to do “everything in my power so you have water, food and electricity” and vowed to “rebuild” Mayotte. His assurances got a mixed reception, from hope to incredulity. The president told reporters he would step up the fight against illegal immigration, “while at the same time rebuilding schools, rebuilding homes, rebuilding the hospital, and so on”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
