St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has called on the international community not to forget his volcano-battered country as the United Nations addressed the issue of enhanced cooperation between itself and regional and sub-regional organisations.
“Please help St. Vincent and the Grenadines in its midnight hour of need,” Gonsalves told the United Nations Security Council on the 19th of April 2021.
La Soufriere has been erupting since April 9, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and destroying houses, farms and livestock on the island.
Gonsalves told the UN Security Council meeting that the issue of cooperation is of “immediate relevance to my country in the context of a massive natural disaster against the backdrop of the many sided challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the predictive Atlantic Hurricane Season that begins in six weeks’ time”.
“For the past 11 days the island has been in the “throes of a series of explosive volcanic eruptions,” Gonsalves added.
As a consequence nearly one-fifth of its population has had to be evacuated to safer areas.
