Cyclone Chido not only ravaged Mayotte’s fragile infrastructure but also laid bare deep-seated tensions between the island’s residents and its large migrant population. Thousands of people who have entered the island illegally bore the brunt of the storm that tore through the Indian Ocean archipelago. Authorities in Mayotte, France’s poorest territory, said many avoided emergency shelters out of fear of deportation, leaving them even more vulnerable to the cyclone’s devastation. Still, some frustrated legal residents have accused the government of channeling scarce resources to migrants at their expense. Mayotte, a French department located between Madagascar and mainland Africa has a population of 320,000, and a further estimated 100,000 migrants living there.
