Emmanuel Macron swore during a furious exchange with residents of the cyclone-hit islands of Mayotte on Thursday night, telling a jeering crowd in the French territory: “If it wasn’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times deeper in shit.”
Cyclone Chido swept through Mayotte, which lies between Madagascar and Mozambique, on 14 December, destroying vital infrastructure and flattening many of the tin-roofed shacks that make up its large slums. Almost a week after its worst storm in 90 years, France’s poorest territory still has shortages of water.
