The top line As relief organizations scramble to provide aid following the worst cyclone to hit the region in over 90 years, authorities.
In France’s Indian Ocean island territory of Mayotte said the death toll from the powerful Cyclone Chido that struck the island over the weekend is likely to be very high—between several hundred and a few thousand.
François-Xavier Bieuville, a Mayotte official, had previously said that he anticipated the real number to be much higher, at “probably several hundred, maybe a thousand, even a few thousand.”
Late Monday morning, television station Mayotte la 1ere reported a death toll of 20. Muslims make up the vast majority of the island’s population, and Bieuville cautioned.
That due of Islamic traditions requiring that the dead be buried within 24 hours, it could never be able to get an accurate assessment of the number of persons murdered.
