French President Emmanuel Macron faced widespread frustration and anger from Mayotte citizens during his stopover in the Indian Ocean archipelago, still recovering from damage caused by the strongest cyclone to hit the region for at least a century.
On Friday morning, Macron visited a community in Tsingoni, on the main island of Mayotte, where others remain without drinking water or phone service about a week after Cyclone Chido.
As I walked through the neighborhood, some shouted, “Let’s water, let’s water!
Mayotte, with 320,000 inhabitants and around 100,000 additional immigrants, is the poorest branch of France. The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods, while many other people ignored the warnings, thinking that the typhoon would not be as extreme.
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The tension was palpable on Thursday night, when Macron was booed by dozens of citizens of Pamandzi, on the island of Petite-Terre, the last level of his first day in Mayotte.
People expressed frustration at the slow pace of relief efforts, with one making an impassioned plea and resisting Macron’s attempts to put his hand on her shoulder or grab the microphone to respond.
Macron ended up taking the microphone away from the others and said: “I have nothing to do with the cyclone. You would possibly be angry with me, [but] it wasn’t me!”
Addressing the crowd, he outlined his difficulties.
“They have experienced terrible things. Everyone fights, regardless of skin color,” he said, calling for unity.
Macron, in turn, became angry and shouted that without France, citizens would be in “10,000 times more shit. ”
The French president added: “There is nowhere in the Indian Ocean where other people get so much help!” A woman may simply be heard saying “we don’t agree. ”
Macron is known for his appetite for debate and is used to being in crowds and facing other people who are with him. He explained that he stayed two days in Mayotte out of “respect and consideration” for the population.
The French president won most warmly in Tsingoni on Friday morning. People suggested he help, some posing for selfies with him and others showing him their children.
Meanwhile, the French army and local government were struggling to repair damaged water pipes across the islands and bring water to villages that didn’t have it.
In the village of Mirereni, about 35 kilometres outside Mayotte’s capital in the north, Civil Security officers were trying to remove a large, felled mango tree that had busted a water pipe.
The pipeline supplies water to about 10,000 people in three neighboring towns. But officials say the repair may take a little longer than before because of the heat affecting the equipment.
Locals said they’re worried the lack of water would cause disease. Earlier this year, there was a cholera outbreak on the island, with at least 200 cases.
At least 31 other people died in the cyclone and around 2,500 people were injured, 67 of them in serious condition, the French government said. But hundreds, if not thousands, of other people are feared dead in the densely populated territory.
French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq said Friday that 17% of hospitals and 40% of all regional fitness centers in the archipelago are still missing.
“This represents between 60 and 70 people,” he told FranceInfo, stressing that a large part of the population still does not have telephone access.
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