How has Cyclone Chido impacted Mozambique and Mayotte?
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In the past week or so, Cyclone Chito has hit the French territory of Mayotte, an island in the Indian Ocean, before moving on to Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, in the southeast of the African continent.

Winds of up to 260 kilometers an hour struck Mayotte, and it's feared that hundreds, possibly thousands, could be dead. Mozambique has also been impacted, with 120 people confirmed dead and over 622,000 affected. That's further strained a country where protests and civil unrest have been ongoing since disputed elections in October.

When the dust settles, though, Mayotte could be the one in worse shape. It's the poorest part of France and already faced major challenges even before the cyclone made landfall. So today, you're going to hear how Mayotte and Mozambique have been affected by the cyclone, and we'll also explain what's been going on with those protests in Mozambique. I'm William Lee Adams, and you're listening to What in the World from the BBC World Service.

First of all, let's look at Mozambique and what's been happening there. The storm hit the northern provinces, which are regularly battered by cyclones.

Hannah spoke to Evelyn Ueshave. She's a BBC reporter from Mozambique and now lives in Nairobi. She told us how Hurricane Chido has impacted the country. So teams from the National Disaster and Risk Management Institute are still taking stock of the damage caused by the cyclone. In terms of infrastructure, Cyclone Chido has destroyed tens of thousands of residents, several schools, and affected dozens of health centers.

And the cyclone made landfall in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique. So this region was the most affected. According to the National Power and Lightning Company, 200,000 people were left without power due to the cyclone. On Thursday's address to the nation, President Filippinus said that the government was working to provide the affected families with housing. At least 35,000 houses were destroyed.

And they were also working to provide these affected communities with essential supplies. There had also been lots of protests which have now been paused because of the cyclone. And I want to find out a bit about these protests now. They started after October's general election. The opposition said it was rigged.

Yes, the protests broke out shortly after the 9 October general election. The National Electoral Commission announced on 24 October that the ruling party, Frelimo, and its candidate, Daniel Schaap, won the election with 70% of the votes. However, an independent candidate backed by an opposition party, Podemos, his name is Venancio Mondlane, rejected the official results as fraudulent and convened a series of protests to demand the restoration of Podemos.

the electoral truth. He has declared himself winner of the elections and promised to take office on 15 January. On 16 December, however, he postponed the protests in solidarity with the victims of Cyclone Shido. So Mozambique's ruling party has been in power since 1975 and there is a growing generation of youths who are anxious for change and who are anxious to have their voice heard.

What were these protests like before they were postponed? What was the atmosphere like? The protests started out as peaceful but have been growing increasingly violent. There have been several reports of killings of minors during the protests. So the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Civil Society Group reported on the shooting of a 16-year-old girl during the protests in the capital Maputo on 7th November 2018.

Privately owned broadcaster Tevesu Sesso reported on the killing of a 13-year-old girl during protests in Shimoyu, a town in central Mozambique, on 18 November. And Venancio Mondlane has used social media platforms very effectively during his election campaigns. And as a result, most of his followers and supporters are young people.

And up to now, Venanthio Mondolani uses platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to communicate with his followers and organize these protests. So these demonstrations are being driven by the youth. And most of the people on the streets are very young people. Even the authorities denounce the participation of children in the protests.

And at the same time, the police has been criticised for its heavy-handed response to the protests. And there have been several reports of police firing live ammunition against the protesters. Have there been any arrests for the killings or any accountability?

There have been no reports of arrests over the alleged excessive use of force against protesters. But we have seen reports of communities attacking and even lynching police officers in retaliation for the killing or injuring of protesters. Privately owned Schwab FM website reported on 11 December that a local self-defense militia killed four policemen.

who attempted to use force to disperse a group of peaceful protesters in Zambezia province in central Mozambique. What have the police said about this, about children being killed, but also about police officers being killed? So the police has criticized what they described as the instrumentalization of children during this protest. The police chief, Bernardino Rafael, said that the protesters were using children as shields, as human shields.

And with regards to the killings of police officers, the police spokesperson in Mozambique, Orlando Modomani, he said that the police would defend itself with all means at its disposal. These protests were initially about the disputed election that we discussed. How have the protests evolved since then?

Well, while the protesters were initially convened by Mondlane to demand the alleged electoral truce, we have seen several instances of smaller communities taking advantage of these larger movements to address their own grievances. Privately owned Carta de Mozambique reported on 5th December that factory workers destroyed a tile manufacturing plant over a dispute with management in Mwamba in southern Mozambique.

State-owned Agência de Notícias do Moçambique also reported on 5 December that protesters in Larde district in Ampula in northern Mozambique invaded the project site of the Canmar mining firm to allegedly remind management of a promise to build a bridge in the community.

People have been banging their pots and pans in the streets, making noise. What is the symbolism of the pots and pans in these protests? Venancia Mundlana called for 'panelaço'. 'Panelaço' comes from the term 'panelo', which is a pot in Portuguese.

In order to encourage the residents of Maputo, especially the urban area, to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, it was seen as a way for middle-class Mozambicans who would not necessarily be ready to go out and protest in the streets to express their dissatisfaction. And in one of his lives, he explained that it would show

the wealthy elites who lived in this middle and upper middle class neighborhoods that the people were dissatisfied with them. So Evelyn, how widespread is support for these protests? Well, initially, nearly all spheres of society seem to support the protests and what they stood for, there seems to have been a gradual decline. The protests are becoming increasingly violent and affecting people's ability to go to work and to earn a living.

And Venancio Mandlán's recent announcement that there would be no Christmas, there would be no New Year celebration, also wasn't very popular with the youth. Evelyn, thank you so much for speaking to us. Muito obrigada. De nada. Foi um prazer. On Monday, Mozambique's constitutional council has confirmed the ruling party won the election. Okay, now let's move on to Mayotte, a French cluster of islands between Mozambique and Madagascar,

The BBC's Myonee Jones went there last week. All along the coastline as you're flying, the trees are basically horizontal. The leaves have been stripped bare. Mayotte has these beautiful big hills. The grass has been completely wiped out. And then you see the buildings and their roofs have been peeled off. Even some of the stronger buildings, we went into a hotel near the airport.

And even though it was extremely well built, its roof had kind of caved in. Hohaina lives on the east of the island. She sent the BBC this voice note. Here in Mayotte, everything is devastated. Landscapes, houses, trees, everything is destroyed. We have no service in some parts of the island.

We have no running water, we have no electricity. We know we're facing really hard times of hunger coming ahead of us because we really have no trees that can give food for the next six months, if not the next year. Even the hospital has lost part of the roof, so it has become very difficult to welcome patients and to really care for everybody.

Waste is piling up on the side of the roads. Here's the BBC's Saram and I with the latest on Mayotte. Tens of thousands of people are still without access to water. Communications on the island are not fully restored, though French militaries are actively trying to restore the lines. But that's a dangerous mission because electric poles have fallen to the ground, the ground where the water pipes are out and exposed. So there is a risk.

That is why, as well, things are taking time. And now health workers are also concerned, as we speak, infectious diseases could spread. So they are trying to find and bury the dead. And they're calling out today on the international community for help. 35 people are confirmed to have died, but many more people are missing. So the death toll could rise significantly once the damage is fully assessed.

Here's Sarah telling us why. Well, first of all, it's tough to attribute exactly, owing to the fact that many of the 300,000 population were living in shanty towns, and most were completely swept away by Cheeto. Entire neighbourhoods disappeared from the map.

Secondly, in Mayotte, there is an abundance of undocumented immigration. So it is estimated that 100,000 of Mayotte's 300,000 inhabitants are immigrants, arriving in particular from the Comoros, trying to apply for asylum in France. And many of the migrants are believed to be among the victims because some were living in unsafe conditions already in shanty towns.

Those people were living in deplorable condition, in makeshift dwellings, which were devastated by the winds. So, as I said, entire neighborhoods have disappeared. Let's keep in mind that

This is the most violent cyclone to hit the island in 90 years. And why is the situation worse in Mayotte than in Mozambique? Well, three things, really. First, the island was less prepared. About 40% of dwellings on the island are shacks made of corrugated sheet metal. 29% of Mayotte's households have no running water, according to the French National Statistics Office, Lince. So that was before the cyclone.

Then the authorities issued warnings before the cyclone. They asked people to stay at home, confined. But because the island is used to tropical storms, people there are used to those kind of storms. It's the season, December, you know. I have a resident who told me that they hadn't really taken it so seriously before.

or at least they haven't measured the scale of the cyclone. And finally, I'd say that the cyclone hit the island and the Indian Ocean first before arriving on the east coast of Africa. And so it lost a bit of its intensity before it arrived in Mozambique. France colonized Mayotte in 1841. And by the beginning of the 20th century, it had made the three main islands that make up the Comoros Archipelago part of its overseas territories.

When Comoros became independent, Mayotte voted to stay part of France. So how has the cyclone impacted how people on Mayotte view the French government? So France has been heavily criticized for not doing enough and not quickly enough. Bear in mind we're talking about people that already felt abandoned by their government and by mainland France already.

Mayotte was already before the cyclone France's poorest area, poorest département, as we would call it in French territory. So it was already heavily reliant on French financial assistance. According once again to French government data, 84% of the islanders live below the poverty line.

before the cyclone. So they feel far. They're in the middle of the Indian Ocean and on their own, really. I've heard that a lot in recent days. I heard that so many times from, you know, residents saying, we feel like we are completely on our own here. And then pictures on social media also showed that the first aid distribution that arrived, it was two bottles of water, a tin of sardines and a tin of tuna.

That was it. In the first few days after the cyclone, that's what some residents, not even all of them, were getting from the French government. So obviously, people were very angry and felt like they were not being taken very seriously here. But more aid, of course, is due to arrive in the coming days. Emmanuel Macron, he was heckled. He was taken to task by local residents.

One inhabitant told him, Mr. President, I don't want to thank you for being here. It is normal. It is your job. So they've been quite tough on him, putting him in front of his responsibilities, really. But then other criticism rose when the new prime minister that Emmanuel Macron appointed only 10 days ago didn't go to Mayotte. His name is François Bayrou.

And he basically, François Bayrou, said that since the president was going, someone had to stay in France. Those are his words. It's a language mistake, obviously, since Mayotte is part of France. But, you know, all that little mistakes contribute really to the anger on the island. And it reinforces, of course, the sentiment, the feeling of neglect by the population. ♪

One question you may be asking is, when is a tropical cyclone actually a hurricane? Well, we've done an episode on exactly that. So if you want a breakdown of the different types of storms and an analysis of if they're getting worse, go check that out. That's it for today. Thanks for listening. I'm William Lee Adams, and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

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With so many options, why choose Arizona State University? For me, the only online option was ASU because of the quality. Their faculty was really involved with their students and care about your personal journey. The dedication to my personal development from my professors, that's been extremely valuable to me. Earn your degree from the nation's most innovative university.

Online. That's a degree better. Explore more than 300 undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs at asuonline.asu.edu.