Macron swears in heated exchanges with crowds in cyclone-battered Mayotte

French president Emmanuel Macron swore during an exchange as he was heckled by angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood ravaged by cyclone Chido, telling them: “If it wasn’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times deeper in shit.”

- TOM WATLING

Nearly a week after the storm hit, the lack of potable water was testing nerves in France’s poorest overseas territory, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Officials have confirmed at least 35 people were killed by the cyclone but there are fears that many more have died.

The damage caused is profound. Some of the islands’ worstaffected neighbourhoods, hillside shanty towns comprised of flimsy huts that are home to undocumented migrants, have not yet been accessed by rescue workers.

“Seven days and you’re not able to give water to the population!” one man shouted at Mr Macron. “Don’t set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we’re screwed,” Mr Macron told the crowd in the Tsingoni neighbourhood. “You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be in way deeper shit, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help.”