For the past two weeks, most of the human reinforcements and equipment to help the survivors of cyclone Chido in Mayotte have been sent from La Réunion Island. From the Gillot military airbase in Sainte-Marie, two Airbus A440s shuttle between the two islands. During the closure of Mayotte airport to commercial flights, Air Austral operated up to three flights a day to bring the Paris fire brigade and other rescue workers to the cyclone-stricken archipelago. The Port naval base is the starting point for the ‘maritime bridge’.
Two weeks after cyclone Chido devastated Mayotte, La Réunion welcomed a high-level French delegation headed by Prime Minister François Bayrou on 31 December 2024. The delegation had just returned from a brief stay in Mayotte, more than a week after President Emmanuel Macron’s whirlwind visit to the stricken island.

Ministers on inspection visit to La Réunion Island

The main objective of the French interministerial delegation was to see for themselves the level of organisation and mobilisation of the military, civil protection and institutions in La Réunion to provide humanitarian support to the survivors of Chido in Mayotte. Emmanuel Valls, the French Minister for Overseas Territories, extended his stay by several days to meet the President of the Region, the President of the Département and representatives of the business community at greater length, in order to organise the reconstruction of Mayotte from La Réunion.
The aim is to mobilise skills on La Réunion to support the rapid reconstruction of housing and infrastructure. It should be remembered that the objective set is two years to rebuild, in order to try once again to come close to the services offered to the inhabitants of a French department.
The only concrete funding for this is an €800 million loan from the Banque des Territoires. It remains to be seen whether the disaster victims will have sufficient financial capacity to repay the money borrowed from the French bank, which makes the release of these funds, which will be used to finance the participation of La Réunion companies and local authorities in the reconstruction of Mayotte, even more hypothetical.

Alongside Réunion, Djibouti is the nearest French base for rescue operations

This sequence of visits by French ministers to La Réunion Island has served as a reminder of the highly strategic role played by our island in the projection of French power around the world.
Indeed, if La Réunion were not under the sovereignty of the French Republic, the nearest military base to Mayotte would be Djibouti. However, Djibouti is twice as far from Mayotte as Réunion. This would mean that by relying on Djibouti, Paris would not have been able to organise such a major air and sea bridge without committing far greater funds. This could provoke a debate in French public opinion, given the austerity policy that has been applied and is set to become even more pronounced.
To reduce the cost of the operation to rescue the survivors of Chido in Mayotte, the French government should have negotiated with a foreign state to provide a base closer to Mayotte, such as the Union of the Comoros with its international airport, or Madagascar with the port and airport of Antsiranana located less than 500 kilometres from Mayotte.

La Réunion: an aircraft carrier anchored in the Indian Ocean to serve Paris’ immediate interests

This visit is also a reminder of how La Réunion Island is fundamentally perceived by the highest French authorities: it is a gigantic aircraft carrier anchored in the Indian Ocean in the service of Paris’s immediate interests at a time of crisis.
In fact, the French authorities’ request for assistance from the local governments of La Reunion and the island’s businesses is addressed to a country that has been devastated by nearly 80 years of French neo-colonialism. Paris wants to mobilise for the reconstruction of housing in Mayotte at a time when more than 40,000 réunionese families are waiting for social housing. Mass unemployment has been a reality for over 50 years, with nearly 180,000 Réunionese registered with France Travail looking for work. This number is close to that of private sector employees. The consequence of this policy is a high poverty rate. For 80 years, Paris has not been able to ensure that the Réunionese enjoy basic human rights, such as the right to work for a decent wage, or the right to decent housing. And now Paris is calling on La Reunion’s business community to be the linchpin in rebuilding Mayotte in two years.
This sequence is typical of French neo-colonialism. The aim is not to develop Réunion, but to use La Réunion’s dynamic forces to achieve Paris’s objectives.

La Réunion Island brings in more for France than it costs

Given the essential role played by La Réunion Island in the projection of French power in the world, would it not be interesting to re-evaluate the nature of relations between our two countries on the basis of this reality?
All this shows that La Réunion brings in far more for France than the public transfers that Paris sends to our island, which are largely repatriated to France via the profits made by French companies in La Réunion.
In other words, the balance of trade is in La Réunion’s favour.
Under these conditions, it is up to the representatives of the Réunionese to use this reality to ensure that Paris changes its policy and provides financial and institutional support for the development of Réunion. The emergency bill for Mayotte must be accompanied by an emergency bill for La Réunion Island. This will require additional funds committed by Paris to finance a policy aimed at full employment on La Réunion, resources to build housing and firm intervention by the State to put an end to the abuses that contribute to the high cost of living on La Réunion.
This will be the least that Paris can do. It must pay a fair price for having such an important base as La Réunion Island.

M.M.