France's Macron visits cyclone-wrecked Mayotte as residents urge for water, food and other aid

MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — France's President Emmanuel Macron traveled Thursday to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey the devastation that Cyclone Chido wrought across the French territory as thousands of people tried to cope without the bare essentials such as water or electricity.

“Mayotte is demolished,” an airport security agent told Macron as soon as he stepped of the plane.

The security agent, Assane Haloi, said her family members, including small children, are without water or electricity and have nowhere to go, after the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Africa on Saturday.

“There’s no roof, there’s nothing. No water, no food, no electricity. We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep,” she said, asking for emergency aid.

Macron went on an helicopter for an aerial appraisal of the damage. He then headed to the hospital in Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, to meet with medical staff and patients.

Wearing a traditional Mayotte scarf on his white shirt and tie, sleeves rolled to the elbows, the French president listened to people asking for help. A member of the medical staff told him some people hadn't had a drink of water for 48 hours.

“We can’t help and we are the ones helping,” an employee of the hospital's psychology unit told Macron.

“We are all in an unsafe situation, psychologically unwell, sorry," she said, wiping tears from her eyes while the president put his hand on her shoulder.

Macron said apart from those who arrived with him, more caregivers would be arriving and that a field hospital will be set up on Friday.

Some residents also expressed their agony at not knowing about those who have died or are still missing, partly because of the Muslim practice of burying the dead within 24 hours.

Mayotte’s lawmaker Estelle Youssoufa said “we’re dealing with open-air mass graves. There are no rescuers, no one has come to recover the buried bodies.”

Some survivors and aid groups have described hasty burials and the stench of bodies.

Macron acknowledged that many who died haven't been reported. He said phone services will be repaired “in the coming days” so that people can report their missing loved ones.

French authorities said at least 31 people have died and more than 1,500 people were injured, more than 200 critically. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died.

Macron said he would stay in Mayotte overnight and will visit a slum area badly hit by the cyclone on Friday morning.

Abdou Houmadou, 27, said it's emergency aid that's needed, not Macron's presence. “Mr President, what I'd like to tell you... is I think the spending you made from Paris to Mayotte would have been better spent to help the people," he said.

Another resident, Ahamadi Mohammed, said Macron’s visit “is a good thing because he’ll be able to see by himself the damage.”

“I think that we’ll then get significant aid to try and get the island back on its feet,” the 58-year-old said.

Macron's office said four tons food and medical aid as well as additional rescuers were aboard the president's flight.

A navy ship arrived in Mayotte on Thursday morning with 180 tons of aid and equipment.

People living in a large slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou were some of the hardest hit from the cyclone. Many had lost their houses, some had lost friends.

Nassirou Hamidouni sheltered in his house when the cyclone hit.

His neighbor was killed when his house collapsed on him and his six children. Hamidouni and others dug through the rubble to reach them.

The 28-year-old father of five is now trying to rebuild his own house, which was also destroyed.

He believes the death toll is much higher than what’s officially being reported given the severity of what he lived through.

"It was very hard,” he said.

Alibouna Haithouna, a 25-year-old mother of four, said her family has been displaced from the slums and has found shelter in a school.

Her brother was killed by the cyclone, she said, explaining she hasn't been able to get his body from the hospital because of “a lot of paperwork” and the fact that you have to pay to recover the body.

Mayotte, located in the Indian Ocean between mainland Africa’s east coast and northern Madagascar, is France’s poorest territory.

The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods as many people ignored the warnings, thinking the storm wouldn’t be so extreme.

Mayotte has 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.

Mayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago that voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum.

The French territory has seen in the past decade a massive arrival of migrants from the neighboring islands — the independent nation of Comoros, one of the world’s poorest countries.

Some other migrants come from as far as Somalia, with, for some, the hope to be able to reach the European continent.

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press journalist Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.

Mohamed Ankidine, 28, third left, with feet injuries, Saindou Dahabou who suffers from diabetes, and Alibouna Haithouna, 33, find refuge at the Lycée des Lumières after losing their homes, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Workers start the process of reconstruction, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Women wash clothes after a short rain filled their pots with water, at the Lycée des Lumières where they found shelter after losing their homes, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 . (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A child plays at the Lycée des Lumières where he found shelter, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People interact by an outdoor chess board, after finding refuge at the Lycée des Lumières after losing their homes, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A French officer directs traffic for essential vehicles, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People walk along partially flooded roads, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A child sleeps at the Lycée des Lumières where he found refuge, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People walk past debris in the Kaweni slum Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People walk past debris in the Kaweni slum Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A woman carrying her belongings walks past debris after Cyclone Chido in the Kaweni slum Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Damage is seen in the Kaweni slum Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People get water from a well in the lower part of the Kaweni slum where they used to have tap water, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Cleared debris after Cyclone Chido are seen in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A man starts rebuilding his shack in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People get water from a well in the lower part of the Kaweni slum where they used to have tap water, on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Nassirou Hamidouni, 28, father of five, stands amongst the debris of the neighboring destroyed home in the slum of Kaweni on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Debris litters a stream in the Kaweni slum in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido.. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant))

People queue for gas in Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People queue for gas in Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Women wash clothes in a stream in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A man stands on his roof in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A boy sits in his destroyed home in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A boy stands amidst debris in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

People queue for gas in Mamoudzou in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A young girl walks in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

A young girl walks in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Women rest on a footbridge over a stream filled with debris in the Kaweni slum in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

AVIGNON, France (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot said after 51 men were all found guilty Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that turned her into a feminist hero that the ordeal had been “very difficult” and expressed support for other victims of sexual violence.

“We share the same fight,” she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years in the shocking case that stunned France and spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture.

Pelicot — whose courage and stoicism have turned her into an internationally recognized figure and an icon for many women — said she was thinking of her grandchildren after enduring more than three months of court hearings that dealt with the nearly decade of rapes and other abuse inflicted on her by her now ex-husband and his accomplices.

“It’s also for them that I led this fight," she said of her grandchildren.

The court sentenced her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was unconscious.

The sentence was the maximum possible under French law. He was declared guilty of all charges against him. At age 72, it could mean that he spends the rest of his life in prison. He won't be eligible to ask for early release until at least two-thirds of the sentence has been served.

Roger Arata, the lead judge of the court in the southern French city Avignon, told Pelicot to stand for the sentencing. After it was delivered, he sat back down and cried.

Arata read out verdicts one after the other against Pelicot and the 50 other men tried in the case.

“You are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot,” the judge said as he worked his way through names on the long list of defendants.

Gisèle Pelicot was seated on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants and sometimes nodding her head as verdicts were announced. Delivering the guilty verdicts and sentences took Arata just over an hour.

Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said that she would weigh a possible appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the court's rulings.

“I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs. Pelicot," she said.

Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty on the sexual assault charge that he was tried for — meaning all 51 of the defendants were found guilty in one way or another.

In a side room where defendants' family members watched the proceedings on television screens, some burst into tears and gasped as the sentences were revealed.

Protesters gathered outside the courthouse followed the proceedings on their phones. Some read out the verdicts and applauded as they were announced inside. Some were carrying oranges as symbolic gifts for the defendants heading to prison.

Prosecutors had asked that Dominique Pelicot get the maximum penalty of 20 years and for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others tried for rape.

But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentenced to less than a decade in prison.

For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in detention while awaiting trial.

Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he drugged his then wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.

The appalling ordeal inflicted over nearly a decade on Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she thought was a loving marriage and her courage during the bruising trial have transformed the retired power company worker into a feminist hero of the nation.

Stretching over more than three months, the trial galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.

The defendants were all accused of having taken part in Dominique Pelicot's sordid rape and abuse fantasies that were acted out in the couple's retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then wife, knocking her out so profoundly that he could do what he wanted to her for hours.

One of the men was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife — with help and drugs from Dominique Pelicot, who was also found guilty of raping that man's wife, too.

The five judges voted by secret ballot in their rulings, with majority votes for the convictions and sentences.

Campaigners against sexual violence were hoping for exemplary prison terms and viewed the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against sexual violence and the use of drugs to subdue victims.

Gisèle Pelicot's courage in waiving her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushing for the hearings and shocking evidence — including videos — to be heard in open court have fueled conversations both on a national level in France and among families, couples and groups of friends about how to better protect women and the role that men can play in pursuing that goal.

“Men are starting to talk to women — their girlfriends, mothers and friends — in ways they hadn’t before,” said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women from the feminist group Les Amazones in gluing messages of support for Gisèle Pelicot on walls around Avignon before the verdict.

“It was awkward at first, but now real dialogues are happening," she said.

“Some women are realizing, maybe for the first time, that their ex-husbands violated them, or that someone close to them committed abuse,” Foures added. “And men are starting to reckon with their own behavior or complicity — things they’ve ignored or failed to act on. It’s heavy, but it’s creating change.”

A large banner that campaigners hung on a city wall opposite the courthouse read, “MERCI GISELE” — thank you Gisèle.

Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts.

Police subsequently found his library of homemade images documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders marked “abuse,” “her rapists,” “night alone” and other titles.

The abundance of evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers, but weren't able to identify them all.

Although some of the accused — including Dominique Pelicot — acknowledged that they were guilty of rape, many didn't, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked wider debate in France about whether the country’s legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific mention of consent.

Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent covered his wife, too. Some sought to excuse their behavior by insisting that they hadn’t intended to rape anyone when they responded to the husband’s invitations to come to their home. Some laid blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in consensual kink.

Nicolas Vaux-Montagny contributed to this report from Lyon.

Gisele Pelicot speaks to the press as she leaves the courtroom, in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot speaks to the press as she leaves the courtroom, in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" post a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "In France in 2024, 94 percent of the rapist are acquitted" near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place, in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A defendant arrives in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisèle Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial at the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)

Media wait outside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of four dozen men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Police officers stand guard inside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of four dozen men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A man with a placard reading "Christmas in prison, Easter in the slammer" walks past the media as they wait outside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A member of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" sticks a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Sorority" around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

FILE - A woman holds a placard that reads, "Thank you Gisele," outside the Palace of Justice during a women's rights demonstration, Dec. 14, 2024, in Avignon, southern France, where dozens of men are on trial in Avignon, accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" attach a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "rape = jail" near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" attach a message for Gisele Pelicot near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" stand by a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Shame has changed side, what about justice ?" during their action of collage of messages around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" stick a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Justice for Gisele" in the streets around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" hang a banner reading "Thank you Gisele" during their action of collage of messages of support near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A woman fires a flare outside the Palace of Justice during a women's rights demonstration, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024 in Avignon, southern France, where the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband is taking place. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

FILE - A man rides a bicycle in front of a banner that reads, "A rape is a rape," in Avignon, southern France, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Activists gather during a women's rights demonstration, Dec. 14, 2024, in Avignon, southern France, where the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband is taking place. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

FILE - People applaud Gisèle Pelicot, front right, who was allegedly drugged by her then-husband so that he and others could sexually assault her, leaves the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisèle Pelicot, who prosecutors say was drugged by her then-husband so that men could rape her as she lay unconscious, leaves the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisèle Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial at the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)