By Tassilo Hummel
MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (Reuters) - Authorities in the French overseas territory of Mayotte could still confirm only 31 deaths on Wednesday from Cyclone Chido, more than four days after it swept through the Indian Ocean archipelago, causing mayhem and killing possibly thousands.
Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory, is home to large numbers of undocumented migrants whose shanty towns were flattened by the storm, and many areas remain inaccessible, further complicating the already difficult task of calculating the scale of death and destruction.
Authorities in Mayotte were ramping up relief operations, with 120 tonnes of food due to be distributed on Wednesday. Supplies have been arriving via an air bridge from France's other Indian Ocean territory, Reunion Island.
Local officials and health workers have said hundreds or even thousands could be dead from the worst storm to hit the archipelago in 90 years.
In addition to the 31 confirmed deaths, the local prefecture said it had recorded 1,373 people with light injuries. It said a complete tally of deaths and injuries would take some time.
"I cannot give a death toll because I don't know. I fear the toll will be too heavy," acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told BFMTV earlier on Wednesday.
Some victims were buried immediately in accordance with Muslim tradition, before their deaths could be counted.
The situation is made more difficult by uncertainty around Mayotte's exact population. While official statistics put it at 321,000, many believe it is much higher due to undocumented immigration, mainly from Comoros and Madagascar.
Few people could be seen on Wednesday in the usually overcrowded shanty towns where many immigrants live, the prefecture office said, while the island's maternity ward, which usually sees one birth per hour, was operating at below normal levels.
CLEANING UP
In the capital Mamoudzou, residents picked through piles of corrugated iron, bedding and other scattered possessions where makeshift homes once stood. Others hammered metal sheets to cover the damaged roofs of houses that had survived the storm.
Tree branches that had withstood the 200 kph (124 mph) winds were festooned with clothing tossed up by the cyclone.
The death toll in continental Africa, where the storm hit after passing through Mayotte, rose on Wednesday to 45 in Mozambique - from 34 a day earlier - and in Malawi to 13 from an earlier seven, officials in those countries said.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that France had activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which can mobilise assistance from other countries and contribute to operational costs.
Retailleau said two gendarmes were injured overnight by projectiles during a curfew decreed on Tuesday after reported looting. Mayotte has experienced repeated bouts of unrest in recent years.
Nizar Assani, who manages a real estate business in Mamoudzou, said someone in his native village had died because there was no electricity to power their ventilator. He pleaded for French President Emmanuel Macron, who will visit Mayotte on Thursday, to take bold action.
"We do not need a declaration of love. We need gestures of love," he told Reuters. "We need to see that France will not cast Mayotte aside."
Health workers say they are bracing for a surge of disease as dead bodies lie unrecovered and people struggle to access clean drinking water.
WATER
With many homes lacking running water, people queued where they could find it to fill up jerrycans and buckets. The Mayotte prefect's office said in a bulletin that half the population should have access to running water by Wednesday evening.
Three out of four people in Mayotte live below the national poverty line. While it exports vanilla, coffee and cinnamon, it remains heavily dependent on support from metropolitan France and attracts relatively few tourists.
The ferry linking its two main islands resumed services on Wednesday for civilians, allowing some people caught out by the storm to return to their families.
During his weekly audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis asked that God "grant rest to those who lost their lives, necessary assistance to those who are in need, and comfort to the families who have been affected".
Opposition politicians in France have criticised what they say is the government's neglect of Mayotte and failure to prepare for natural disasters linked to climate change.
Some right-wing politicians, including Retailleau of the conservative Les Republicains party, have pointed the finger at illegal immigration, which they say has impoverished Mayotte and left it with vast shanty towns vulnerable to extreme weather.
Concerns about immigration and inflation have helped make the territory a stronghold for France's far-right National Rally, with 60% voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election runoff.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Mamoudzou; Additional reporting by Makini Brice and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Custodio Cossa in Maputo, Frank Phiri in Blantyre, and Joshua McElwee in Rome; Writing by Aaron Ross, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)
