By Tassilo Hummel
MAMOUDZOU (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron landed in the storm-ravaged islands of Mayotte on Thursday to pleas that his government do more to help as heavy rains piled further misery on an estimated 100,000 people left homeless by Cyclone Chido.
Thousands are feared dead, but officials in France’s poorest overseas territory have only been able to confirm 31 fatalities more than five days after Chido struck, the worst storm to hit the islands in 90 years.
Many areas in the Indian Ocean archipelago remain inaccessible. Heavy rain in the capital Mamoudzou and other areas has deepened the plight of thousands of people whose shantytown dwellings were flattened.
As Macron disembarked from a plane packed with four tonnes of food and medical aid, airport workers pleaded with him for support.
“Take your time. Stay with us. Give us solutions. Give us emergency help, because in Mayotte, there is nothing,” an airport security worker named Assane Haloi told him.
Macron, appearing moved, held the woman’s shoulder and said: “Everything will be done step by step.”
From the airport, he boarded a helicopter to fly over the islands. Crowds gathered outside booed the presidential motorcade as it left for a hospital, where the helicopter later joined it, pool reporters said.
The French leader, whose government has been accused by opposition politicians of neglecting Mayotte, will also visit an affected neighbourhood and meet officials, the presidency said.
The French government authorised price controls on essential goods including bottled water and construction material on Thursday.
Health workers say they are bracing for a surge of disease as dead bodies lie unburied and people struggle to get clean drinking water.
Officials have warned it will be difficult to work out how many have died in a territory that is home to large numbers of undocumented migrants from Comoros, Madagascar and other countries.
Official statistics put the population at 321,000, but many say it is much higher. Some victims were buried immediately, in accordance with Muslim tradition, before their deaths could be counted.
The death toll in continental Africa, where the storm hit after passing through Mayotte, stood at 45 in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi, officials in those countries said.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Makini Brice and Michel Rose in Paris; writing by Ammu Kannampilly and Aaron Ross; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Angus MacSwan)
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