More than 200 Red Cross humanitarian volunteers are feared missing and potentially thousands of residents are dead in the wake of the worst cyclone to hit the French archipelago territory of Mayotte in 90 years.

The official death toll from Tropical Cyclone Chido, which hit Mayotte on Saturday, has risen to 22 with more than 1,400 people injured, according to a hospital report quoted by Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of the capital, Mamoudzou.

Local authorities fear that the death toll could surge into the thousands, as emergency response officials race to stop hunger, disease and lawlessness from spreading in Mayotte.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a post on X on Tuesday that more than 200 of its volunteers are missing on the archipelago.

A spokesperson for the French Red Cross also told AFP that because of cuts to communication services in Mayotte after the cyclone, the organisation has been unable to contact and locate the majority of its 300 volunteers and 137 employees located on the archipelago.

Scenes of devastation after Cyclone Chido

The storm tore through large parts of France's poorest overseas territory with winds of up to 220 kph, leaving many parts of Mayotte inaccessible and some victims buried before their deaths could be officially counted.

Mr Soumaila said it may take days to discover the full extent of the damages, and the immediate priority was restoring food and water supplies.

"There are people who have unfortunately died where the bodies are starting to decompose that can create a sanitary problem," he said on French radio.

"We don't have electricity. When night falls, there are people who take advantage of that situation."

More than 75 per cent of the roughly 321,000 people in Mayotte live in conditions of relative poverty.

Twenty tonnes of food and water are due to start arriving by air and sea from Tuesday, and the French government said it expects 50 per cent of water supplies to be restored within 48 hours and almost completely within the week.

Power outages and communication disruptions continued on Tuesday, leaving many residents without basic necessities. The island's main hospital was also severely damaged in the storm.

France's interior ministry announced that a curfew would go into effect on Tuesday night from 10pm to 4am local time (5am to 11am AEST).

Rescue workers have been searching for survivors amid the debris of shantytowns bowled over by the tropical cyclone.

Mayotte politician Estelle Youssouffa said officials have faced challenges locating and identifying those who have died.

"This population, by definition undocumented migrants, are the main victims of this tragedy because they feared going to shelters."

She also said that she had spoken to a local imam on Monday who reported burying more than 30 people in a single day in La Vigie, a makeshift settlement.

"I don't even know if these figures are included in the official count," Ms Youssouffa said.

Political furore as Macron set to visit

French President Emmanuel Macron said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday that he would visit Mayotte in the coming days, as the disaster quickly fuelled a political back-and-forth about immigration, the environment and France's treatment of its overseas territories.

Mayotte has been grappling with unrest in recent years, with many residents angry at illegal immigration and inflation.

The Indian Ocean territory has become a stronghold for France's far-right National Rally party, with 60 per cent voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election runoff.

France's acting interior minister Bruno Retailleau, from the conservative Republicans party, told a news conference in Mayotte that the early warning system had worked "perfectly" but many of the undocumented had not come to designated shelters.

"Mayotte is the symbol of the drift that [French] governments have allowed to take hold on this issue," Mr Retailleau said in a post on X. 

"We will need to legislate so that in Mayotte, like everywhere else on the national territory, France retakes control of its immigration."

Left-wing politicians have since accused the French government of neglecting Mayotte and failing to prepare for natural disasters linked to climate change.

"[Retailleau] could have interrogated the role of climate change in producing more and more intense climate disasters. He could have rallied against the extreme poverty that makes people more vulnerable to cyclones," Socialist Party chairman Olivier Faure said in a post on X.

"No, he has resumed his crusade against migrants."

Deaths in Mozambique

After Cyclone Chido passed over Mayotte, it made landfall in neighbouring Mozambique and mainland Africa on Sunday.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday that at least 34 people have been killed in the storm's wake, according to figures from the southern African country's disaster agency.

"As of 17 December 2024, a total of 174,158 people were estimated to be impacted, with 34 people dead and 319 injured," OCHA said in a statement.

Drone footage from Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, already experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to an Islamist insurgency, showed razed thatched-roof houses near the beach and personal belongings scattered under the few palm trees still standing.

Winds in the country reached speeds of up to 260 kph and about 250 millimetres of rain fell in 24 hours, Mozambique's National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management said.

Nearly 23,600 homes and 170 fishing boats were also destroyed in the intense weather.

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