MAMOUDZOU, Jan 1, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two weeks after a devastating cyclone 
hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, the atmosphere at Le 
Manguier school in the capital Mamoudzou is tinged with sadness and 
resignation.

At this time of year, preparations for the new school year are normally well 
under way. Instead, the families living there are having to find another 
place to live, with many of their homes blown away by the storm.

In the courtyard of the Paulette Henry elementary school, as Le Manguier is 
also known, breakfast is a meal of bread and tuna, washed down with fruit 
juice.

"There's no electricity here," said Mrahati Abdallah, one of the team that 
manages the centre. "So, we tried to stock up on non-perishable food."

Amid bottles of water, milk, boxes of biscuits and pureed fruit, town hall 
officials and volunteers took stock for the last time before distributing the 
provisions to homeless families who have spent the last two weeks at the 
school.

"Sometimes we get donations. Then we can give something else," they said.

As December and the old year drew to a close, faces were tense, with everyone 
aware that the centre -- and 20 other emergency shelters like it in the 
capital -- were shutting.

They opened their doors on December 13, the day before Cyclone Chido hit, and 
have since been home to nearly 12,500 people.

Le Manguier has housed 21 babies, 118 children and 63 adults.
On Monday, Roukia Abdillah was already preparing to leave.

She lived just a few metres from the school but her home was flattened in the 
cyclone -- the worst to hit France's poorest department in 90 years, in which 
at least 39 people were killed.

High winds flattened many of the shanty towns in which some 100,000 to 
200,000 people lived.

"We won't leave here with dirty clothes," sighed Abdillah as she washed her 
laundry in a large metal basin.

"It will dry in the afternoon and tomorrow we will leave."

- Cleaning needed -

"They gave us a roof to shelter us," said Nadjati Mouhoudhoire, another 
local. "Now that they're asking us to leave, we will leave without trying to 
cause trouble."

She had already begun to take her belongings back home nearby, stashing 
clothes, water bottles and valuable documents under corrugated metal.

"I don't know where to go so I'm going to come back here," she added, 
standing in what remained of her house.

"I have to think about it but right now, I can't." How and when she and her 
son will rebuild is an unanswered question.

On Monday, the mayor of Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told visiting 
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou that all the emergency shelters in the 
city would be closed from January 1 "so that we can get the schools back".

"We have to clean up so the return to school, normally scheduled for January 
20, can take place in the best possible conditions," he said.

Soumaila also told Bayrou that a state school that served as an emergency 
shelter had been burnt down in his area.

An investigation into the fire is under way, the Mamoudzou prosecutor's 
office told AFP on Tuesday.

Homeless families are at a loss to say where they will go when they leave the 
shelters, with the authorities still struggling to restore, water, power and 
telecoms to the impoverished archipelago.

"We just need time to rebuild our house," said Siti, a student at the 
Mgombani middle school, near Le Manguier.

"With my mother there are six of us. The youngest is just a few months old. 
We don't know where to go now. We know where to build but we haven't had time 
yet," he added.

Soumaila pointed out that the prime minister was committed to "taking care of 
all of these families who will have no place to sleep".

But exactly how has not been disclosed.