Hurricane Chido is not alone. Drought and malnutrition are hitting French Mayotte

A week after the worst hurricane it has witnessed in nearly a century, the poor French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean is still struggling to count deaths, restore basic services, and help its afflicted people.
Hospitals are overloaded with patients, not only due to hurricane-related injuries, but also due to dehydration, malnutrition and disease.

Hurricane Mayotte, France

Doctors are facing a number of crises. Doctor Roger Serhal, head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, said: “We have lost 40% of patient rooms, or about 50 to 60 beds.
He continued: “A large number of patients come to the hospital and we do not have a place to receive them.”
Since Hurricane Chido struck the Mayotte archipelago early last week with winds reaching speeds of 220 kilometers per hour, Serhal and his team have performed three births, resulting in three births, including a cesarean section.

Deaths and victims of Mayotte

As of Friday, 35 people had been confirmed dead in Mayotte, but French Health Minister Geneviève Dareussek pointed out that any estimate was likely to be less than the true number “compared to the scale of the disaster.”

The storm destroyed entire suburbs, and many residents ignored the warnings, as they thought the storm would not be this severe.
Worse still, many migrants avoided shelters for fear of deportation, authorities said.

Thousands of victims

She explained that there may be hundreds or thousands of victims, and doctors fear that the lack of clean water and electricity, in addition to crowded living conditions, will lead to a health crisis.
The island of Mayotte is a heavily populated archipelago, located between Madagascar and the continent of Africa, with a population of more than 320,000 people, but the authorities estimated that another 100,000 immigrants live there from places as far away as Somalia.

Hurricane Shido

Cyclone Chido also killed at least 45 people and injured more than 500 in Mozambique, according to a new toll announced last Wednesday by the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management in the southern African country.
Cyclone Chido hit the mainland of the African continent, specifically northern Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado province.