MIRERENI, Mayotte — French President Emmanuel Macron faced widespread frustration and anger from residents of Mayotte during his visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is still reeling from the damage of the strongest cyclone to hit the region in nearly a century.
On Friday morning, Macron visited a neighborhood in Tsingoni on Mayotte’s main island, where people remain without access to drinking water or phone service, nearly a week after the cyclone.
As he walked through the area, some shouted: “We want water, we want water.”
Tension was palpable on Thursday evening when Macron was met with boos from dozens of residents in Pamandzi on Petite-Terre island during the last stop of his first day in Mayotte.
As people expressed frustration at the slow pace of aid efforts, Macron grabbed a microphone and said: “I have nothing to do with the cyclone, you can blame me, it wasn’t me!”
Addressing the crowd, he acknowledged the hardship.
“You’ve been through something terrible, everyone’s struggling, regardless of skin color,” he said, urging unity.
Macron got angry in turn, shouting, “You’re happy to be in France … If it wasn’t France, you’d be 10,000 times more screwed!”
The French president added: “There’s no place in the Indian Ocean where people get so much help!” A woman could be heard saying “we disagree.”
Macron is known for his appetite for debate and is used to mix into crowds and confront people who are angry at him. He explained that he stayed two days in Mayotte out of “respect and consideration” for the population.
Mayotte, with 320,000 residents and an estimated 100,000 additional migrants, is France’s poorest department. The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods as many people ignored warnings, thinking the storm wouldn’t be so extreme.
In Tsingoni, the French president got a warmer welcome on Friday morning by people eager to urge him for help, some posing for selfies with him, others showing him their children.
Meanwhile, French military and local authorities were scrambling to repair busted water pipes across the islands and get water to villages who haven’t had any.
In the village of Mirereni, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) outside Mayotte’s capital in the north, Civil Security officers were trying to remove a large, felled mango tree that busted a water pipe.
The pipe provides water to around 10,000 people in three nearby villages. But officials say repairing it might take a bit longer than usual because of the heat, which impacts equipment.
Locals said they’re worried the lack of water would cause disease. Earlier this year, there was a cholera outbreak on the island, with at least 200 cases.
At least 31 people have died during the cyclone and about 2,500 people were injured, including 67 in serious condition, French authorities said. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died.
The government said it defined a method to count those who have died through ordering a census of the population district by district, with the help of mayors and local associations. A special team has been set up, authorities said, and some staff is being sent on the ground to verify the information provided.
French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq said Friday that there were about 17% of hospital staff and 40% of all regional health staff on the archipelago who are still unaccounted for.
“That’s around 60 to 70 people,” she said on news broadcaster FranceInfo, stressing a large part of the population still has no access to phone services.
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Sylvie Corbet reported from Paris.
