Activities of Secretary-General in Dominica, 8 October

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres left Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday, 8 October, for Dominica, to visit the island struck by Hurricane Maria.

The Secretary-General was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.  They flew to Salybia, in the north-western part of the island, where the Secretary-General met with affected communities and participated in a relief distribution supported by the United Nations and its partners.

Back in Roseau, Dominica’s capital, the Secretary-General held a meeting with members of the Government, including the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Charles Angelo Savarin.

In a press conference following that meeting, Mr. Guterres said that the country had been decimated by Hurricane Maria and expressed two main concerns:  first, to make sure that the international community fully recognizes that the higher frequency and intensity of hurricanes is not an accident but the result of climate change; and second, that the level of support that Dominica requires cannot be achieved through traditional instruments but requires new financial instruments, linked mainly to the build-up of resilience.

After a visit to United Nations staff deployed in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the Secretary-General flew back to New York, where he arrived on Sunday evening.