British military aircraft to airlift Guyana’s relief supplies to the Caribbean

Last Updated on Thursday, 21 September 2017, 12:58 by Denis Chabrol

Britain is to deploy a military aircraft to Guyana to uplift at least 10 shipping containers of relief supplies for hurricane-hit Caribbean islands, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said Thursday.

He said the British High Commission has advised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that a C-130 aircraft would come to Guyana to pick up the much-needed items.

The containers would be taken to Antigua from where the supplies would be distributed by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to the islands.

Harmon said government has already indicated to Britain that it might ask for another aircraft to uplift more supplies.

The State Minister noted that prior to Britain’s help, the private sector was considering hiring a 300 tonne capacity vessel to take the supplies.

GAICO, a privately-owned company, has already paid US$12,000 to transport one container of supplies to Antigua.

The supplies include rice, sugar and building supplies.

Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria have virtually flattened St Maarten, Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Dominica.