The French territory of Mayotte was hit by another tropical storm on Sunday, just weeks after the worst cyclone to hit the islands in nearly a century caused widespread devastation in December.
Mayotte issued a red alert and people were ordered to stay indoors or seek shelter and stockpile food and water as Tropical Storm Dikelendi brought heavy rain and strong winds to once again batter France’s poorest department.
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Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, had just begun the rebuilding process after being devastated by Cyclone Chindo last month, which killed at least 39 people and injured more than 5,000 others.
200 people are still missing after the storm hit the islands on December 14.
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#TEARS | Red cyclone alert in progress
Very heavy rain which may cause flash floods, flooding and landslides is expected for much of the day. pic.twitter.com/MScopR3FvA
— Prefect of Mayotte (@Prefet976) January 12, 2025
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Three people died in neighboring Madagascar after the Dikelidi phenomenon passed through on Saturday, the country’s National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said.
Parts of northern Madagascar were put on red alert.
Dikelenti had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached Mayotte on Sunday, French weather service Météo-France said.
The center of the storm passed about 100 kilometers south of Mayotte, Météo said, unlike Chido which hit Mayotte head-on.
But Météo-France warned that Dikelidi could strengthen to a cyclone again, while authorities in Mayotte said there was a high risk of flooding and landslides across the islands and issued a red alert on Saturday night.
That alert remained in effect for Sunday and citizens were banned from being outside until it was lifted, said the Mayotte prefecture, the French government agency that manages the region.
“The risk to the population remains,” the prefecture said on its official Facebook page.
Mayotte is reopening cyclone shelters at schools and community centers for those in need, the prefecture said.
The international airport, which was badly damaged by Chinto, was again closed until further notice.
Officials said they were taking no chances after the devastation caused by Chinto sparked an angry reaction from Mayotte residents, who expressed their frustration to French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited the islands days after the disaster.
Residents of Mayotte have previously accused the French government of neglecting them and the region, which is the poorest in the European Union.
France’s interior ministry said emergency personnel and security forces had been mobilized for Dikeledi’s arrival, with much of the attention focused on the precarious slums around the capital, Mamoudzou.
Many who had lost their homes in Chido did not yet have proper shelter when Dikeledi hit.
National broadcaster Mayotte la 1ère said the southern village of Mbouini, one of the few in Mayotte to escape the Chido, had been flooded and almost completely destroyed by Dikelenti.
Mayotte la 1ère broadcast video of Mbouini residents fleeing in wooden canoes as their homes were submerged under floodwaters.
Mayotte is a densely populated area with around 320,000 inhabitants.
Another 100,000 irregular migrants from nearby Comoros and elsewhere are also believed to live on the islands, which are a magnet for people from poorer countries because of the French welfare system.
Chido was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years, according to authorities.
While 39 deaths have been confirmed, French Prime Minister Francois Bairou warned during his visit to the islands two weeks ago that the final death toll could be in the hundreds.
Authorities faced challenges in recording the deaths and injuries from Chindo because many of those affected were undocumented immigrants and because of the Muslim practice of burying people within 24 hours of their death.
November to April is cyclone season in the south-west Indian Ocean and the region has been hit by a series of powerful cyclones in recent years.
The worst was Cyclone Indai in 2019, which killed more than 1,500 people in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe and affected more than three million people.
Source: www.zougla.gr
