Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son also sent messages of sympathy to Prime Minister François Bayrou and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, respectively.

Thousands have been feared dead after powerful Cyclone, a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale, and the worst to hit Mayotte since the 1930s, hit the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean on December 14.

Mayotte was totally devastated, said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, estimating 70% of the population was gravely affected.

On December 16 evening, he confirmed 21 deaths at hospitals, with 45 people in critical condition. But Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq warned that any estimates were likely major undercounts “compared to the scale of the disaster.”

Mayotte is a densely populated archipelago between Madagascar and the African continent of more than 320,000 people, according to the French government. Most residents are Muslim and French authorities have estimated another 100,000 migrants live there from as far away as Somalia.