Switzerland pledges CHF1 million in aid to Caribbean after hurricane
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Switzerland pledges CHF1 million in aid to Caribbean after hurricane
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs is providing over CHF1 million ($1.24 million) in aid to the Caribbean to help recover from the severe damage caused by Hurricane "Melissa" in the Caribbean. The money is intended to benefit the affected populations in Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) is also sending nine experts to Cuba, as announced on Friday. The latter are to support the Cuban Red Cross in its relief efforts on the ground. Among them are six specialists from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) and one expert from the Swiss Red Cross.
According to the FDFA, there are also two water specialists who are already in Latin America. Water treatment materials will also be delivered to Cuba as part of this operation, it added. In Jamaica, Switzerland will contribute financially to an appeal for help from the International Federation of Red Cross Societies.
In Haiti, thousands of people have been able to flee to shelters built with Swiss support. The warning systems that have been set up with the local authorities in recent years have worked.
Hurricane “Melissa” is considered one of the strongest tropical storms ever recorded over the Atlantic. The hurricane caused severe flooding in the past few days and caused major destruction to infrastructure. Thousands of families were displaced. According to the FDFA, access to clean drinking water, electricity and basic services remains severely restricted.
In Jamaica, at least 19 people lost their lives last Tuesday. In Haiti, at least 30 people died according to the latest information from the authorities. In Cuba and the Bahamas, property damage has so far been reported.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.