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St Vincent calls for international help ‘in its midnight hour of need’ after volcanic eruption displaces 20,000

PRIME Minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves has made a heartfelt plea to the international community to help his country recover from a volcanic eruption that has displaced 20,000 people, saying the Caribbean island nation is “in its midnight hour of need.”

“Across our land, the faces of men and women are strained and anxious. They’re hurting badly,” Mr Gonsalves told the United Nations security council on Monday, adding that his country is confronting “a monumental challenge of humanitarian relief.”

La Soufriere, the volcano on St Vincent, unleashed its first big eruption of ash and hot gas on April 9, a day after the government ordered people to evacuate homes nearby. Subsequent explosions have followed.

Thousands of people have been living in government shelters, some of which have been struggling to provide basic supplies, and water systems are shut down in many parts of the island, which is contending with the coronavirus pandemic and the approaching hurricane season.

The UN’s resident co-ordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean said last week that the island was facing “a humanitarian crisis that is growing and may continue for weeks and months.”

 A Venezuelan navy ship has delivered water and other supplies to St Vincent and Caribbean island nations are also sending aid.

The UN has released $1 million (£715,000) from an emergency response fund, according to secretary-general Antonio Guterres’s office, and the world body will soon be launching an emergency appeal for money to fund the humanitarian effort and the early phase of recovery for the next six months.

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