Close to 1,000 people feared dead after cyclone in Mayotte
Close to 1,000 people may have been killed after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, the island’s top official has said.
Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told local TV station la 1ere: “I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand, even thousands… given the violence of this event.”
He said it was currently “extremely difficult” to get an exact number.
Officials had confirmed at least 11 deaths in Mayotte, an overseas department of France, earlier on Sunday but said that was expected to increase.
Cyclone Chido caused extensive damage on Saturday, with nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar also affected as it blew through the southeastern Indian Ocean.
Forecaster Meteo-France said it was the strongest storm in more than 90 years to hit the islands.
Winds of more than 136mph ripped roofs off houses and destroyed buildings in Mayotte.
The damage caused by the Cyclone Chido, in Kaweni, Mayotte, France. Pic: @foulani2.00/TikTok/Reuters
A damaged house in Mayotte. Pic: AP
Entire neighbourhoods were flattened, while residents reported many trees had been uprooted and boats had been flipped or sunk.
The main airport and hospital also suffered major damage, the new French prime minister Francois Bayrou said.
He added many people living in precarious shacks in slum areas have faced very serious risks.
One hospital in Mayotte reported that nine people were in critical condition and another 246 others were injured.
But France‘s interior ministry said it was proving difficult to get a precise tally of the dead and injured – though interior minister Bruno Retailleau feared the number killed “will be high”.
The ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed, alongside rescuers and firefighters from Mayotte and the nearby territory of Reunion. Supplies were also being rushed in on military aircraft and ships.
French Army shows soldiers patrolling Mayotte. Pic: AP
French Army shows soldiers loading aid for Mayotte. Pic: AP
Mayotte has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands about 500 miles off Africa’s east coast.
It is France’s poorest region and has struggled with drought, underinvestment, and gang violence for decades.
Cyclone Chido has now made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland, where the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Cabo Delgado province, home to around two million people, had been hit hard.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with government to ensure continuity of essential basic services,” the organisation said.
“While we are doing everything we can, additional support is urgently needed.”
UNICEF Mozambique spokesman Guy Taylor said in a video that communities now face the prospect of being cut off from schools and health facilities for weeks.
Malawi and Zimbabwe have also made emergency plans, with both countries warning they may have to evacuate people from low-lying areas due to flooding.
December through March is cyclone season in the southeastern Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been pummelled by a series of strong ones in recent years.
Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe while Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.
The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne disease cholera as well as dengue fever and malaria.
Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in southern Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to global warming, having to deal with large humanitarian crises – underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impact of climate change.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
Read more from Sky News:
New episodes of The Wargame podcast released
US-UK trade deal is ‘done’, Donald Trump says
Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike