Tropical storm lashes France's Mayotte just weeks after devastating cyclone

NEWS WIRES

12 January 2025 at 1:40 am·1-min read

Tropical Storm Dikeledi brought strong winds and heavy rains to France's battered Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Sunday, less than a month after the archipelago was ravaged by a deadly cyclone. Authorities have called for “extreme vigilance” as the French weather service warned residents that the new storm could be reclassified as a cyclone.

The French territory of Mayotte was battered by a new tropical storm Sunday, just weeks after the worst cyclone to hit the islands in nearly a century laid waste to entire neighborhoods and villages and forced a huge recovery effort by authorities.

Mayotte's people were ordered to stay indoors or find a solid shelter if they didn't have one, and store food and water, as Tropical Storm Dikeledi brought heavy rains and strong winds to once again pound France's poorest department.

Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, had only just begun the process of rebuilding after the devastation of Cyclone Chido last month, which killed at least 39 people, left more than 200 still missing, and injured more than 5,000 when in struck on Dec. 14.

“The danger to the population persists,” the prefecture said in a series of alerts on its official Facebook page. It said the weather would be calm at one point on Sunday but would become violent again later in the day.

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