Chido: Race against time for rescuers in Mayotte, Mozambique

Rescuers raced against time Monday to reach survivors after a powerful cyclone hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, laying waste to the territory's many shantytowns, with hundreds feared dead.

Cyclone Chido caused major damage to Mayotte's airport and cut off electricity, water, and communication links when it barreled down on France's poorest territory on Saturday.

Chido also slammed into Mozambique's northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, damaging buildings and knocking out power to some areas, officials said.

Mozambique authorities are conducting an assessment of the full extent of the damage, with relief efforts focused on providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to displaced individuals.

Damage assessments

Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville expects the final death toll will reach "close to a thousand or even several thousand," he told broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.

The mayor of Mayotte's capital, Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP the storm "spared nothing."

"The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated," he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron will host a crisis meeting on the disaster in Paris at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), the presidency said.

Climate change

France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, with 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed.

Chido was packing winds of at least 226 kilometres (140 miles) per hour when it slammed into Mayotte, which lies to the east of Mozambique.

"Many homes, schools, and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed," the United Nations children's agency UNICEF Mozambique said.

Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change, according to experts.

The "exceptional" cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of the Meteo France weather service told AFP.

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, warned 1.7 million people were in danger and the remnants of the cyclone could also dump "significant rainfall" on Malawi through Monday.

Zimbabwe and Zambia could also expect heavy rains, it added.

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