Cyclone Chido caused extensive damage on the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, leaving several people dead, officials said Saturday, as the storm roared toward the east coast of Africa.

Tropical Cyclone Chido struck southeast Africa, killing "perhaps a few thousand" in France's Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Saturday and then hitting Mozambique on Sunday, officials said.

Early last Sunday, after a night spent working at a small Mayotte maternity ward as a vicious storm devastated the French islands, midwife Lucie Gerard learned that a stranded woman was giving birth in a nearby home.