OVER 200 VOLUNTEERS FEARED MISSING IN CYCLONE CHIDO-STRICKEN MAYOTTE: IFRC

GENEVA, Dec 17 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) expressed concern on Tuesday over the fate of more than 200 of its volunteers feared missing on Mayotte, a French Indian Ocean territory, after Cyclone Chido devastated the islands, reported Xinhua.

"Winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (km/h) caused by Cyclone Chido have devastated the French overseas territory of Mayotte. It's feared that more than 200 ... volunteers are missing," IFRC said on X.

Cyclone Chido, which slammed into the island of Mayotte on Saturday, has killed at least 14 people and caused immense damage to the island, French media reported on Sunday.    

IFRC spokesman Tommaso Della Longa expressed deep concern over the large number of people still unaccounted for following Cyclone Chido's devastation of Mayotte.  In a television interview, he revealed that over 200 volunteers from the French Red Cross are among the missing, with no communication established since the cyclone struck.    

He added that French Red Cross teams had already been deployed, along with humanitarian aid, in preparation for the disaster, arriving on the islands the week before the cyclone made landfall.    

Located in the northern Mozambique Channel of the Indian Ocean, Mayotte is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It lies off the southeastern coast of Africa between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique.  

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA