Imagine waking up to horrifying images of a region of France reduced to ruins after an extreme overnight weather event. We don’t have to imagine it, because it happened in December. Tropical cyclones don’t usually strike in Europe, but this one levelled a French département. France’s colonial history made that possible.
Mayotte, situated in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is part of the former French colonial empire. It has been a French overseas collectivity since the 1970s and was made a department of France in 2011. As such it is an integral part of the EU, too.
