French President Emmanuel Macron has met with residents of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, days after the French overseas territory was hit by a devastating cyclone.
At least 31 people have been confirmed dead so far, but local officials fear the complete toll could be much higher, reaching hundreds or even thousands.
Upon arriving in Mayotte on Thursday, Macron was met with ire from some residents, who were aggrieved by what they felt was a lack of support from Paris following the disaster.
“The water isn’t there, no services are there. After six days, is that normal?” one man angrily asked the French president.
A women, clearly distressed, told Macron that the archipelago “needs him.”
“Everything is demolished. We need you – there is nothing in Mayotte. We have young children, we are without water, without electricity,” she told the president.
There has also been a backlash to the amount of aid that has been given to those affected by the cyclone. Macron brought four tons of aid to the territory, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported.
“Four tons of aid, that’s 100 grams of food or water per person. What is that? That’s a tin of sardines? If he brings us 40,000 tins of sardines, we’re happy, we’ll be content with that,” one local woman told public broadcaster France Info.
Another woman posted a photograph of two bottles of water, a can of tomatoes, and two other small tins of food on social media. “Here is the so-called food aid distributed to the people of Mayotte,” she wrote. “Anger begins to mount.”
Though he was originally planning on only staying in Mayotte for the day, Macron confirmed on Thursday afternoon that he would be staying in the territory overnight, according to BFMTV.
Macron also announced that the country will establish a compensation fund for those who are uninsured, and said that he will “rebuild” Mayotte with new “criteria,” BFMTV reported.
Many parts of Mayotte remain inaccessible after Cyclone Chido – the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years – struck last weekend. The powerful storm flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.
Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.
The extent of the damage has been difficult to ascertain, in part because of the prevalence of undocumented migrants living in informal dwellings. An estimated 100,000 undocumented migrants, many from neighboring Comoros and Madagascar, live in Mayotte, according to France’s interior ministry.
Mayotte has struggled with poverty, unemployment, violence and a deepening migration crisis, which France has responded to with police crackdowns and mass deportations.
The government activated a state of “exceptional natural disaster” on Wednesday evening, a measure that has never been used, to help manage the crisis, according to the French overseas minister. Authorities also froze the price of consumer goods, such as food and hygiene products, amid shortages.
Local officials have warned that a lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation conditions could lead to a disease outbreak.
On Thursday, France’s health minister Geneviève Darrieussecq announced that France was putting measures in place to fight cholera if an outbreak occurs, having already pre-positioned 10,000 doses of vaccines against it.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Tuesday it had lost contact with 200 of its volunteers in Mayotte and that it was racing to deliver aid, including water and medical supplies, to impacted communities.
French authorities distributed 120 metric tons of food Wednesday ahead of Macron’s visit, news agency Reuters reported. On Thursday, the president’s plane also transported more than four tons of food and health aid, Macron said on social media.
Cyclone Chido, a Category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service.
Macron announced on Thursday that France will hold a national day of mourning next Monday for those affected by the disaster.
“We all share the pain” of the people of Mayotte, he said.
His visit – made several days after the cyclone first struck the territory – also came amid ongoing political turmoil in France.
Bruno Garcia, a resident of Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, told BFMTV the destruction was “catastrophic” and “apocalyptic.”
“There is nothing left. It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte,” Garcia said.
CNN’s Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.
