WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL Press Release, Cyclone in Mayotte: A human disaster, a colonial responsibility (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On December 14, Cyclone Chido hit the Mayotte archipelago with wind

gusts of over 220 km/h, something unseen in ninety years. The island is
experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster: several hundred or
even thousands of deaths are expected despite the absence of any toll to
date, 1 in 3 people are now homeless, and the inhabitants find
themselves without water, without food, without access to healthcare and
cut off from the world since until now calls could only work at the
prefecture, Mamoudzou**,** while the resources deployed by the French
State are not up to par, are very slow to arrive, and betray a greater
responsibility.

In a fairly classic way with the French colonies, the problem is managed
by the Ministers of the Interior, in the pure continuity of the colonial
administrations managed by the army. Despite the disaster, the Prime
Minister left the press conference on the issue, leaving Retailleau to
answer questions even though Overseas Territories is the Prime
Minister's portfolio in Barnier's government, which is still in operation.

A security and racist response
Quickly, accusations of looting were launched by various elected
officials. Even though priority should be given to relief and their
needs to best help the populations, it is the police services and the
far-right union Alliance who are speaking out.

By brandishing the threat of looting, then accusing migrants of the
potential human toll, Retailleau's position is clear: the problem is an
immigration problem, which must be resolved as quickly as possible with
repressive forces, the establishment of a curfew, and the sending of
soldiers. We can expect that, as in Louisiana, priority will be given to
rescuing white people and wealthy people. As announced several times,
the only concern of the State will be order, and this before the
injured, before the dead, before the risks of epidemics, before the
homeless, before the lack of water or food, ...

Towards an intensification of natural disasters
The IPCC and environmental activists have been warning for decades that
climate change will bring increasingly extreme and devastating
disasters. We knew that the day Mayotte was hit by a cyclone, it would
be a massacre. Even if cyclones generally pass over Madagascar or
Mozambique and spare Mayotte, clearly the scale of this one was not
anticipated by the French authorities and the inhabitants were not
sheltered.

Structural poverty, a consequence of colonial policies
But how can we talk about this humanitarian catastrophe without talking
about the situation in Mayotte, which explains the scale of the disaster
that we are slow to discover?

The situation in Mayotte is linked to the destabilization of the region
following the island's separation from the rest of the Comoros during
the illegal referendum of 1976 and the drawing of French borders in the
middle of the Indian Ocean. French interference in this part of the
world has led to structural immigration, with thousands of people coming
to crowd into the shanty towns of the archipelago in the hope of a
better life. Undocumented people are among the first victims of the
cyclone, due to their makeshift housing and the fear of reaching
shelters or going to get treatment, since the island has become a giant
control zone, where 60% of the annual OQTFs take place, and where
identity checks can take place anywhere - yet another colonial legal
exception. It is estimated that 1 in 3 people in Mayotte live in a
shanty town or "informal housing". Operation Wuambushu, planned for
early 2023, has had no other effect than to reinforce their precarious
situation, in particular by the destruction of several hundred houses in
two months, with the support of the army.

The media announce that 70% of maternity services have been interrupted
since the cyclone, but we must not forget to be outraged that the
Mayotte Regional Health Agency has been trying since early 2023 to
"control the birth rate in Mayotte" and that it has announced that
sterilizations (tubal ligation) would be systematically offered to young
mothers, Mayotte and Comorian, coming to give birth at the Mayotte
hospital center. Or that women no longer access care, even when
pregnant, for fear of being expelled. Or that State Medical Aid no
longer exists in this department. That infant mortality is almost three
times higher than in mainland France. That all services are understaffed
and have a criminal lack of resources. 77% of the island's inhabitants
live below the poverty line, public services are saturated, the
archipelago has been experiencing a water crisis since 2017 that the
State is not trying to resolve - as is also the case in Guadeloupe. The
legal creation of "undocumented immigrants" has been causing deaths for
years, and it is estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 people have
died at sea since the Balladur Visa was introduced in 1995.

We think of the victims of the cyclone, the families in mourning or
unable to contact their loved ones, the people who have seen their homes
destroyed and their lives turned upside down. After the shock, and as
more information reaches us, only one thing is certain: the human
tragedy into which French colonialism plunges the Mahorais and Comorians
must end.

Libertarian Communist Union, December 18, 2024.

Sud Education's Mayotte Support Fund

Popular Relief Fund for Mayotte

February press release on the controversy over the abolition of dual
birthright citizenship in Mayotte

State racism in Mayotte, Obsessed with women's bellies

Interview with a midwife in Mayotte in AL

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Cyclone-a-Mayotte-Un-desastre-humain-une-responsabilite-coloniale
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