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The Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, hit by a volcanic eruption, will receive one million dollars in emergency aid from the United Nations.
The funds will provide “urgent humanitarian assistance to affected people, especially those who have been evacuated,” said a UN statement.
UN aid workers will distribute drinking water and hygiene kits and distribute money to the most vulnerable to purchase food, a UN spokesman said.
About 20,000 people were evacuated after the La Soufriere volcano erupted for the first time since 1979 last Friday. Roughly 4,500 people are in shelters, and the country’s airspace is closed. “Most houses in Saint Vincent have no water, and many of the country’s 110,000 residents have been affected by ashes,” the spokesman said.
Eruptions continue to occur daily, with ash clouds covering the land and reaching the surrounding islands. The UN said that, depending on the wind, the volcanic eruptions could have ecological and economic consequences for Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Saint Vincent is the largest island of the Caribbean Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
