The prefect of Mayotte estimated on Wednesday that there could be “around forty people missing, without mortuary remains”following the passage of Cyclone Chido which devastated the archipelago, in addition to 39 deaths and thousands of injuries.
“There is a body of evidence which allows us to believe that these people (disappeared) are unfortunately victims of Chido”declared the prefect of Mayotte François-Xavier Bieuville, during a press conference at the rectorate, in Mamoudzou.
More “this figure must be verified”warns the State representative who recalled that investigative work is underway.
“The number of people who died does not correspond to the reality of the 100,000 people who live in precarious housing”we can read in the daily situation updates from the prefecture.
In the first hours after the cyclone hit on December 14, Mr. Bieuville had assumed that there would be “certainly several hundred, perhaps we will approach a thousand, or even a few thousand” of deaths.
The death toll is instead counted in “a few dozen or a few hundred”said Prime Minister François Bayrou during a trip to Mayotte on December 30, more than two weeks after the passage of the cyclone, estimating that the “rumors of thousands of deaths” were not “not founded at this time”.
The prefect of Mayotte was also questioned by the press on the request for a commission of inquiry from Mahorais senator Saïd Omar Oili who accuses the State of lacking transparency and of not having searched for missing people.
“We did investigative work from December 14 at 2:00 p.m.” with teams of police, gendarmerie, firefighters, replied Mr. Bieuville.
“There have been 514 operations of this nature” since the start of the crisis, which has enabled the care of 3,500 people, he underlined.