Local authorities said on Sunday that the likely death toll from Cyclone Chido, which passed through Mayotte, was “definitely several hundred”, although the disruption will make it difficult to establish an exact figure.

Rescue workers and supplies are being brought in by air and sea, but their efforts are likely to be hampered by damage to airports and power distribution in an area where even clean drinking water was already chronically scarce.

An earlier figure given to AFP by a security source had confirmed just 14 deaths.

“I think there will definitely be several hundred, maybe we will get close to a thousand or even several thousand,” said Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville on Mayotte la Premiere.

He added that it was “very difficult to determine a definitive number” because most residents were Muslim and their dead were traditionally buried within 24 hours.

The mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, had earlier told AFP that nine people were seriously injured and fighting for their lives in hospital, while 246 others were seriously injured.

“The hospital is affected, the schools are affected. Houses are completely destroyed,” he said, adding that the hurricane “spared nothing.”

Mayotte’s 320,000 residents were sentenced to a curfew on Saturday as Cyclone Chido hit the islands about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Mozambique with gusts of at least 226 kilometers per hour.

Electricity poles were toppled to the ground, trees were uprooted and tin roofs and walls were torn off makeshift structures that house at least a third of the population.

Information is being filtered out slowly from the locked-down population, which is in shock and largely cut off from water and power supplies, a source familiar with the recovery effort told AFP.

One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he walked through the main island and had to clear blocked roads himself.

– Fight for supplies –

Interior Minister Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday along with 160 soldiers and firefighters, his office said, to reinforce the 110 soldiers already stationed on the islands.

Medical personnel and equipment would be delivered by air and sea starting Sunday, the prefecture said in Reunion Island, another French territory in the Indian Ocean about 1,400 kilometers away on the other side of Madagascar.

A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 p.m. local time (12:30 GMT) with three tons of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical personnel, authorities in Reunion Island said. Two military aircraft are expected to follow.

A navy patrol ship was also due to leave La Réunion with personnel and equipment, including for the electricity supplier EDF.

Pope Francis, who visited the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Sunday, urged people to pray for the residents of Mayotte.

– Storm hits Mozambique –

Somewhat northwest of Mayotte, the islands of the Comoros were also hit, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, but suffered only minor damage.

Cyclone Chido later hit Mozambique, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain as it made landfall about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba early Sunday, weather services said.

Buildings were damaged and power was out in some areas of Mozambique’s northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.

But in the afternoon, Chido traveled over the landlocked province of Niassa and became weaker, said National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management President Luisa Meque.

UNICEF said it was on the ground to help people affected by the storm, which has already caused some damage.

“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with the government to ensure the continuity of essential services,” it said in a statement.

Experts say Cyclone Chido is the latest in a series of storms around the world fueled by climate change.

The “extraordinary” cyclone was strengthened by particularly warm waters in the Indian Ocean, meteorologist Francois Gourand of French weather service Meteo France told AFP.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday the strength was similar to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 people in Mozambique, respectively.

It warned that about 1.7 million people were at risk and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on neighboring Malawi by Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.

Heavy rain is also expected in Zimbabwe and Zambia, it said.

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