On Saturday December 14, cyclone Chido swept across the island of Mayotte, which for a time had been placed under violet vigilance, the highest level, with winds of over 136 mph and high waves of submersion.
Impassable roads, shanty towns reduced to rubble, downed electricity and telephone networks… After the passage of cyclone Chido, the face of Mayotte changed. Hundreds of people lost their lives. The toll could be much higher in the hours to come, as rescue workers attempt to reach the worst-affected areas. The precarious housing, which concerns at least a third of the population of the archipelago of 320,000 inhabitants, lying 497 miles off East Africa coast, has been “completely destroyed”, announced the French Minister of the Interior.
Faced with the distress of the hard-hit populations, Fondation de France is launching an appeal for national solidarity for Mayotte.
Fondation de France is mobilizing urgently to provide assistance to the stricken population. On the strength of its experience in the French West Indies in 2017 (cyclones Irma, José and Maria) and with the support of its local partners in the Indian Ocean region, Fondation de France is rapidly deploying essential actions to help the victims (shelter, psychological support, relaunching economic activities and associations…).
Fondation de France has been involved in post-emergency aid for over thirty years. It was one of the major players after the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the earthquakes in Haiti since 2010, the earthquake in Nepal in 2015 and the hurricanes in the French West Indies in 2017. More recently, it has been mobilized in Lebanon in 2020, in Ukraine since 2022 and following the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in February 2023 and in Morocco in September 2023. It has demonstrated its expertise in meeting the needs of disaster victims, notably by providing psychological support for those most severely affected, helping to rebuild communities and support economic recovery.
Information on the actions carried out and the results will be posted on the website www.fondationdefrance.org