Image source, Reuters

People in Mayotte - a French island in the Indian Ocean - have been calling for aid after Cyclone Chido caused widespread devastation over the weekend.

Residents have spoken of "apocalyptic scenes" caused by the worst storm in 90 years to hit the territory. Footage from the isolated and impoverished island shows entire areas destroyed.

Many areas of the island are cut off, with electricity internet and phone services severely damaged - so the full extent of the damage is yet to be revealed.

Twenty people have been confirmed dead so far, but the island's most senior official has said the true death toll is likely to be much higher, likely in the hundreds - or "even several thousand".

There are also concerns about vital supplies running low, with many reporting severe shortages of food and clean water. A Belgian midwife living in the island told the BBC people "feel abandoned", as authorities attempt to ramp up delivery of vital supplies.

Chido has since been downgraded to a depression, and has moved into the African mainland after making landfall in Mozambique.

We'll shortly be closing our live coverage, but you can continue to follow the latest developments on the ground in Mayotte in our news story.

BBC weather presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas explains how tropical storms form and the impact they can have.

Watch this short video to find out exactly what a cyclone is:

Image source, Getty Images

Matthieu Chantrelle, who is co-ordinating Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) response to the crisis in Mayotte, describes the situation on the ground as "very chaotic", and says slum neighbourhoods have been particularly badly hit.

The latest footage from Mayotte paints a clearer picture of the devastation caused by the cyclone.

In the capital, Mamoudzou, we can see street after street filled with trees and debris, with seemingly every house damaged.

Speaking to the BBC from Paris, Chantrelle says the people they have managed to speak to have told them there's no water or electricity, adding that some services at hospitals have been impacted by flooding.

He goes on to highlight difficulties in communication: "It's very difficult to talk to the people, and the people over there, they don't have access to information and so the situation is very complicated".

Eva van Dam
Reporting from Paris

On Petite-Terre, the smaller of Mayotte’s two islands, 22-year-old Ingrid Chauvet and other residents remain completely isolated from the main island, Grande-Terre.

"I have no information about what’s happening on Grande-Terre; the lines are down," she says.

After Cyclone Chido, Petite-Terre is unrecognisable, she says with the island "completely devastated".

Riding through the streets on her scooter, Ingrid witnesses the destruction.

"It is with immense sadness that I see people who have lost everything, with no home or means to rebuild," she says.

Image source, Reuters

French non-profit Secours Populaire is releasing €100,000 (£83,000) in funds to assist with recovery efforts in Mayotte.

The anti-poverty charity says this is to ensure urgent intervention is possible, according to FranceInfo.

Initial assistance will be based on the needs in Tsingoni and Dembeni - two cities on the island, the national secretary of Secours Populaire, Sebastien Thollot, tells the French news platform.

Thollot adds that the bulk of the work after that will focus on rehabilitation.

"A mission will leave very quickly when the survival conditions are met to land", he says.

Thollot estimates that the charity's work will last "at least throughout 2025".

The charity says it aims to help other associations restart their work, and also to address possible health issues in the region.

A resident of Mayotte has been describing what used to be her home before it was destroyed by Cyclone Chido.

In this short video, she shows us the life-changing damage the cyclone caused to her surroundings when it flattered her home:

Image source, Reuters

We've been hearing assurances from France this morning that efforts will be "fully mobilised" to come to the aid of Mayotte.

"All my thoughts this morning are with our compatriots in Mayotte who are suffering the tragic consequences of the disaster that has struck the island," French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has said in a translated statement to reporters in Brussels.

"Under the authority of the prime minister, the government and state services are fully mobilised to provide support, reinforcement and security to our fellow compatriots in Mayotte."

"This week we will be working with the European Commission to ensure that European solidarity is in place to support the reconstruction effort that lies ahead," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

French non-profits and aid organisations are calling for donations to help with Mayotte's recovery efforts.

Here are a few of the latest updates we've seen from some of them:

• The French Red Cross has appealed for donations on social media , externalthis morning, describing the needs on the island as "immense"
• French non-profit Protection Civile says their teams are providing emergency aid and essential equipment to affected areas, as well as clearing out houses and helping families in distress. The organisation has also launched an appeal for fund, external
• Secours Populaire has asked for help, external for vulnerable people who live in precarious housing
• The Fondation de France has called for national solidarity, external and help to urgently shelter victims and provide psychological help
• The Fondation Architectes de L'urgence, which aims to provide essential materials and equipment to temporarily cover homes that have been impacted, is also calling for support, external

Image source, Reuters

Pope Francis has expressed his support for people affected by Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, after it caused widespread destruction on the island over the weekend.

During a visit to the Ajaccio Cathedral in Corsica on Sunday, Pope Francis said he "supports in spirit those who have been affected by this tragedy".

“Let's pray for the victims of the cyclone that has hit the Mayotte archipelago in recent hours," he has said.

As we've been reporting throughout the day, hundreds of people are feared dead in Mayotte after Cyclone Chido swept a path of devastation through the island.

Here's some of the latest footage we've seen, which shows views of the neighbourhood Labattoir from above:

Richard Kagoe
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Reuters

The latest footage out of Mayotte paints a clearer picture of the devastation caused by the cyclone.

In the capital, Mamoudzou, street after street is filled with trees and debris, with seemingly every house damaged. A nurse at the main hospital said there was nothing left.

Residents have been queuing outside stores in search of water and other basic supplies.

Mayotte remains mostly cut off from the rest of the world after Cyclone Chido devastated the French territory, leaving communication severely disrupted.

Families are desperately trying to locate missing relatives, but movement across the island is nearly impossible as roads remain blocked.

Scenes of destruction are everywhere - homes flattened, belongings scattered, and lives shattered. Everything lost in an instant.

Some victims sift through the rubble, searching for anything that can be salvaged. Emergency workers are racing against time to find survivors and restore essential services, but for the victims, the wait for help feels agonizingly long.

Chido's impact wasn't limited to Mayotte. In northern Mozambique, the storm claimed three lives, including a three-year-old girl in Nampula province.

Jacob Evans
BBC World Service News

Image source, Billy Henri

As Cyclone Chido powered westwards across the Indian Ocean, first in its path was the tiny Mauritian island of Agalega.

The community of just 350 people has been left devastated as strong winds and storm surges destroyed the territory's homes and schools - as well as severing power supplies.

It left the Agalega stranded with no telecommunications or electricity for days. Videos online show residents huddling in the isolated island’s airstrip as the storm makes landfall.

Agalega is more than 1,000km (620 mile) north of Mauritius’ main island and is incredibly inaccessible - with just four boat journeys from Port Louis a year.

Image source, Billy Henri

There have been no deaths reported so far, but people are in dire need of aid and supplies and an emergency appeal has been set up.

Mauritian Minister Shakeel Mohamed visited Agalega over the weekend, saying he had “never seen such devastation”.

Fallen trees have blocked the few roads on the island too. Indian military aircraft have been deployed to drop off vital supplies and local volunteers are working tirelessly to support the population.

A Mauritian patrol vessel has also been deployed after a tug-boat caught in the storm and run aground off the coast Agalega has led to concerns of a potential oil spill.

Image source, Billy Henri

The island nation of Comoros has declared a week of national mourning after Cyclone Chido devastated their neighbour, where many people from the country lives.

Mayotte is one of the islands that make up the Comoros Archipelago, but is the only one in the chain that remained part of France when Comoros declared independence from France in 1975.

President Azali Assoumani has said the mourning period will last until Sunday 22 December, adding that the flag of the Union of the Comoros would be flown at half-mast.

France's challenge is showing it can respondpublished at 14:33 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2024

14:33 GMT 16 December 2024

Danny Aeberhard
Europe regional editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Cyclone Chido has left in its wake shattered lives and a major humanitarian crisis.

France's challenge now is showing it can respond - to prevent it from becoming a greater catastrophe.

Politicians are stressing their resolve and solidarity. But Mayotte is roughly 7,000km (4,350 mile) from the French mainland. So logistics are a massive problem.

Reunion - a French island on the other side of Madagascar - is being used as a staging post.

France is scrambling to try to boost supplies, and get in more emergency workers, security personnel and engineers fast.

It has raised questions about just how prepared the French state was for such an eventuality.

Image source, Reuters

The deputy mayor of Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou tells French media he has "never seen anything" like the damage caused by Cyclone Chido.

Dhinouraine M’Colo Mainty estimates that “almost all” of the island's 90,000 inhabitants have been affected.

"In the 21 accommodation centres that we have set up in Mamoudzou, there is no water, no electricity, the toilets do not work,” he tells broadcaster Franceinfo.

The deputy mayor says rescue teams are struggling to reach isolated villages beyond the city centre because of fallen trees and rubble from damaged infrastructure.

Mainty adds that when these locations are eventually accessible he expects the death toll to be “catastrophic”.

Image source, Reuters

The French government has just shared an update on the resources it has deployed to Mayotte.

Some 1,600 police officers and gendarmes are now on the ground, clearing debris and assisting the population, interior ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize says.

She adds that around 800 personnel from emergency services Sécurité Civile are to be sent to support recovery efforts.

Mayotte used to be passport to mainland Europepublished at 13:54 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2024

13:54 GMT 16 December 2024

Marina Daras
BBC Africa

Image source, Reuters

About 48 to 50% of people on Mayotte were not born there. Most of them came to the island through boat crossings. They come from Comoros - the neighbouring archipelagos - and from Madagascar.

They also come from much further reaches, like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

Many of them come because they have been promised Europe, which is a false promise.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who didn’t even know where Mayotte was, or that the island existed. They were trafficked through promises of reaching Europe, and they ended up in Mayotte.

A lot of these people are pregnant and hope to get French passports. It used to be the case that you would get birth right citizenship if you delivered a baby on the island.

This has changed now; the rules have become harder and harder to satisfy.

Once on the island, these people do have access to certain parts of the welfare system. Children can go to school, and they can get some sort of healthcare through the main hospital in Mamoudzou - which we’ve heard has been badly damaged by the cyclone.

However, these immigrants are at risk of being detained and deported while they are sorting out their paperwork or while they are asking for asylum.

As we've been reporting, Cyclone Chido hit the French island of Mayotte over the weekend before reaching the south-east of Africa on Sunday.

This map shows the cyclone's path across the Indian Ocean, and how it's predicted to progress through Africa.

As a reminder, Chido was downgraded to a depression after making landfall in Mozambique, with winds speeds of around 48kmh (30 mph).

Eva van Dam
Reporting from Paris

Image source, Amalia Mazon

"We didn't expect it to be so violent. We barricaded ourselves at home and waited for it to pass. We were very scared when we saw the water rising and seeping into our house."

Amalia Mazon is a 27-year-old midwife from Brussels, has been working for four months at the island’s central hospital, and was there when Cyclone Chido made landfall.

"The situation is quite chaotic. We're okay; we're a bit flooded, but we have a solid house,” she tells the BBC.

“It's more about what comes after that concerns us. We don't have any electricity, we don't have any cell phone reception, and there’s still a lot of rubble everywhere.”

Amalia is particularly worried about access to drinking water and food.

"The water here is completely yellow. It’s unusable for us,” she says.

With communication networks destroyed, people are relying on word of mouth to locate clean water collection points, she says.

"Honestly, there’s nothing here on the ground—no resources at all. There are three people trying to care for hundreds of people. We feel completely abandoned, and we don’t even know if help is coming. We have no news; we have no idea..."

Residents of Mayotte are still reeling from the impact of Cyclone Chido, which bought wind speeds of over 225km/h (140mph) to the archipelago on Saturday.

Twenty people have been confirmed dead, but the local prefect has said the true death toll is likely to be much higher.

Widespread damage to infrastructure - with downed power lines and impassable roads - is severely hindering emergency and rescue operations.

The clip below shows the extent of the damage.