CYCLONE CHIDO: 11 PEOPLE KILLED IN MAYOTTE; DEATH TOLL LIKELY IN HUNDREDS AS CYCLONE HEADS TOWARD EAST AFRICA

The death toll from a cyclone that hit France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Saturday is likely to be several hundred.
Entire communities were flattened when Cyclone Chido made landfall, causing wind gusts of more than 225 km/h (140 mph).
The cyclone had put the region on high alert as it closed in on the African mainland.
The storm also hit the nearby Comoro Islands, causing flooding and damaging homes.
Acting Transport Minister Francois Durovray said on X that Petite-Terre’s Pamandzi airport had “suffered major damage.”.
Mayotte was directly in the trajectory of the storm, suffering widespread damage, but Chido also affected the islands of the Comoros and Madagascar, not far away.
The Comoros closed its airports and schools not long before the cyclone descended on the area on Saturday.
Over in Madagascar, residents reported flooding.
Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fuelled by climate change, according to experts.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique, respectively.
It warned that some 1.7 million people were in danger and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on neighbouring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
It added Zimbabwe and Zambia were also likely to see heavy rains.

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