MIRERENI, Mayotte (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron faced widespread frustration and anger from Mayotte residents during his visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is still reeling from damage from the strongest cyclone to hit has hit the region in almost a century.
On Friday morning, Macron visited a neighborhood in Tsingoni on Mayotte’s main island, where people still do not have access to drinking water or telephone services almost a week after the cyclone.
As he walked through the area, some shouted, “We want water, we want water.”
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The tension was palpable on Thursday evening when Macron was met with boos from dozens of residents of Pamandzi on the island of Petite-Terre during the last stop of his first day in Mayotte.
As people expressed frustration at the slow pace of relief efforts, Macron grabbed a microphone and said: “I have nothing to do with the cyclone, you can blame me, it wasn’t me!”
He addressed the crowd and acknowledged the hardships.
“You have experienced something terrible, everyone is struggling, regardless of skin color,” he said, urging unity.
Macron, in turn, got angry and shouted: “You’re happy to be in France… If it wasn’t France, you’d be screwed 10,000 times more!”
The French president added: “There is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive so much help!” You could hear one woman say, “We disagree.”
Macron is known for his thirst for debate and is used to mingling with crowds and confronting people who are angry with him. He explained that he stayed in Mayotte for two days out of “respect and attention” for the population.
With 320,000 inhabitants and an estimated 100,000 additional migrants, Mayotte is the poorest department in France. The cyclone destroyed entire neighborhoods as many people ignored warnings, thinking the storm would not be that extreme.
In Tsingoni, the French president was received more warmly on Friday morning by people who were eager to ask him for help. Some posed for selfies with him, others showed him their children.
Meanwhile, French military and local authorities were busy repairing broken water pipes on the islands and supplying water to villages that did not yet have one.
In the village of Mirereni, about 35 kilometers outside the capital of Mayotte in the north, Civil Security officers tried to remove a large, felled mango tree that had damaged a water pipe.
The pipeline supplies water to about 10,000 people in three nearby villages. But officials say repairs may take a little longer than usual because of the heat, which affects the equipment.
Locals said they feared the lack of water would cause diseases. Earlier this year there was a cholera outbreak on the island, with at least 200 cases.
At least 31 people died in the cyclone and around 2,500 people were injured, including 67 in serious condition, French authorities said. But it is feared that hundreds or even thousands of people have been killed.
The government said it has defined a method to count the dead by conducting a district-by-district census, with the help of mayors and local associations. A special team has been formed, authorities say, and personnel are being sent to the scene to verify the information provided.
French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq said on Friday that around 17% of hospital staff and 40% of all regional health staff on the archipelago were still missing.
“That’s about 60 to 70 people,” she told news channel FranceInfo, highlighting that a large part of the population still does not have access to telephone services.
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Sylvie Corbet reported from Paris.
