Mayotte has not yet recovered from the impact of Cyclone Chido, which passed through the archipelago a month ago, causing extensive damage to the poorest French department.
ADVERTISEMENTThe French territory of Mayotte has been placed on red alert again as it braces for another cyclone after the worst tropical storm in a century hit the islands last month.
Mayotte prefecture said a red alert was issued at 10 p.m. local time in preparation for the arrival of Cyclone Dikeledi, which made landfall in northern Madagascar earlier Saturday and was moving west toward Mayotte.
Dikeledi is expected to reach Mayotte sometime early Sunday.
Emergency personnel and police were on alert and “everything was done to protect the population,” the French interior ministry said.
Dikeledi is said to be likely to weaken to a strong tropical storm as it approaches Mayotte.
France’s Meteo weather department said Dikeledi would continue to bring strong winds and heavy rain, although it was expected to pass approximately 75 kilometers south of Mayotte.
Wind gusts could reach up to 110 kilometers per hour, according to Meteo.
Mayotte has not yet recovered from the impact of Cyclone Chido, which passed through the archipelago a month ago, causing extensive damage to the poorest French department.
Authorities say at least 39 people have been killed on Mayotte and more than 2,000 injured by Chido, but French Prime Minister François Bayrou warned during a visit to the islands two weeks ago that the final death toll could be in the hundreds.
It was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years, officials said, leaving a trail of destruction and flattening entire neighborhoods as it passed.
Mayotte, a densely populated archipelago of over 320,000 people on the east coast of Africa, is also home to around 100,000 migrants.
Many people live in unsafe shantytowns, which were hit hardest by Chido.
More than 100 others died in Mozambique and Malawi as Chido moved on after breaking through Mayotte and reaching mainland Africa.
Although Dikeledi was not expected to be as strong as Chido, which brought winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour, authorities expected more rain and a high risk of landslides, said Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, the French government’s top official on the islands.
November to April is cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean, and the region has been hit by a series of powerful cyclones in recent years.
ADVERTISEMENTThe worst was Cyclone Idai in 2019, which killed more than 1,500 people in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe and affected more than three million people.
