Brussels, 12 December 2015/ ACP: The Government of Mauritius gifted the Commonwealth of Dominica with €100,000 to help with recovery efforts following the devastation wreaked on the Caribbean island by Tropical Storm Erika in August.
The Ambassador of Mauritius in Brussels H.E Haymandoyal Dillum presented the cheque to the Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States H.E Dr. Len Ishmael during a special session of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors on 10 December 2015. It was also Ambassador Dillum’s first occasion to address the Committee since his appointment as Ambassador of Mauritius to the European Union.
Ambassador Ishmael thanked the Government and People of Mauritius for their friendship and solidarity as a fellow Small Island Developing State (SIDS), as well as a fellow member of the ACP family of nations. The gesture was applauded by ACP diplomats as a welcome symbol of South-South cooperation.
On 28 August 2015, Tropical Storm Erika descended on the small Caribbean nation of about 70,000 people, destroying in just a few hours critical infrastructure that took more than five years of normal investment for the country, according to the World Bank.
The total damage and loss was estimated at US$483 million, equivalent to 90% of Dominica’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the rapid damage and impact assessment conducted by ACP-EU Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program. At least 20 lives were lost as a result of the storm.
The disaster highlighted the vulnerability faced by Small Island Developing States (SIDS), 37 of which are members of the ACP Group. The ACP Group recently launched a SIDS forum to raise awareness about the challenges faced by small island countries and promote the implementation of the SAMOA Pathway, endorsed at the Third International Conference on SIDS held in Samoa in 2014.
(Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick Gomes, Ambassador Haymandoyal Dillum of Mauritius, Chief Whip of the National Assembly of MauritiusPurmanund​ Jhugroo, ACP Chef de Cabinet Ambassador Mamour Jagne, and Ambassador Len Ishmael of the Eastern Caribbean States)
– ACP Press