PARIS (Reuters) – France is holding a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a deadly cyclone on Dec. 14, on Monday, beginning with a minute of silence at 11:00 a.m. (1000 GMT).
Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit the island in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government’s death toll stands at 35.
To commemorate Mayotte’s losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.
“It is a communion in mourning,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was “present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country.”
Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.
Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighbouring Malawi.
ANGER
The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France’s poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.
Francois-Noel Buffet, France’s acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water – a flashpoint even before the disaster – had made it to the island, saying: “We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution.”
Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.
In Paris, Bayrou, France’s fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.
Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticised the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who has not yet visited the islands, of “humiliating us a second time.”
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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