Dominica lifts Hurricane Maria curfew in Roseau

The final curfew affecting Dominica in the wake of Hurricane Maria has been lifted.

The rules were in place after the island was devastated by the category five storm on 18 September to deal with looting and disorder.

The hurricane left over 30 dead with many more missing, as well as millions of dollars of damages.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said Dominica faces a loss of 224% of it's GDP (gross domestic product) this year.

In a statement from the Ministry of National Security, they advised the curfew had gone with immediate effect on 8 December.

The decision was made on the advice of Dominica’s police commissioner, it added.

“The city of Roseau is returning to a state of normalcy with electricity being restored in a number of areas and therefore, there is a need to create an environment that encourages economic activity bearing in mind that we are in the Christmas season,” the statement said.

In October a lifting of the curfew was announced for Portsmouth and other communities – but this did not apply to Roseau, which still faced downtime from 4pm to 8am.

The partial curfew removal was made to allow for economic activities to be undertaken, such as fishing, farming and retailing of goods” the ministry said at the time, as well as allowing children to head back to school.

A week after the hurricane struck, the country's police chief said his force were dealing with incidents of "massive looting".

At that point 40 arrests had been made in relation to criminal matters and 86 people who violated the curfew were arrested.