CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The French territory of Mayotte was placed on alert Saturday as one other cyclone headed toward islands off Africa that were devastated last month by their worst storm in nearly a century.
Mayotte Prefecture said a red alert was issued at 10 p.m. local time to organize for the arrival of Cyclone Dikeledi, which made landfall in northern Madagascar earlier Saturday and was moving west toward Mayotte.
Dikeledi was on account of reach Mayotte early Sunday. Emergency services and law enforcement agencies are on high alert and “everything is being done to protect the population,” the French Interior Ministry said. It said Dikeledi was more likely to weaken into a powerful tropical storm because it approached Mayotte.
France's Meteo weather agency said Dikeledi would still bring strong winds and heavy rain, even though it was expected to pass about 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of Mayotte. According to Meteo, wind gusts could reach speeds of as much as 110 km/h.
Mayotte has not yet recovered from the consequences of Cyclone Chido, which swept across the archipelago a month ago and caused extensive damage in France's poorest department. Authorities said no less than 39 people were killed and greater than 2,000 injured by Chido in Mayotte, but French Prime Minister François Bayrou warned during a visit to the islands two weeks ago that the ultimate death toll might be several hundred.
It was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years, officials said. He left behind a trail of destruction and razed entire neighborhoods to the bottom. Mayotte, a densely populated archipelago of over 320,000 people off the east coast of Africa, can also be home to an estimated 100,000 migrants. Many people live in precarious slums, which were hardest hit by Chido.
More than 100 others died in Mozambique and Malawi as Chido moved on from the destruction of Mayotte and landed on the African mainland.
November to April is cyclone season within the southwest Indian Ocean, and the region has been hit by quite a few strong cyclones lately. The worst was Cyclone Idai in 2019, which killed greater than 1,500 people in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe and affected greater than 3 million people.
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