(EFE).- The United States Navy has ordered the evacuation of all non-essential personnel and their families from the Guantanamo base in Cuba, owing to the threat posed by the Category 4 Hurricane Matthew.

Around 6,000 people, including members of the US Navy and their families and workers contracted from Jamaica and the Philippines, stay at the Guantanamo base, which serves as a prison for terrorism suspects and where there are currently 61 detainees.

“A mandatory evacuation has been called for all non-essential personnel…This includes dependents, school-aged children, special needs families, and their pets,” Guantanamo base spokesperson Julie Ann Ripley said in a statement.

The powerful Hurricane Matthew, which has fallen to Category 4 after reaching the maximum Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale on Friday, has become stationary in the Caribbean Sea, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Matthew, the fifth hurricane this season in the Atlantic, has sustained winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour, and although it has barely shifted of late, it is expected to slowly move towards the northwest in the next few hours, according to the meteorological center.

The hurricane was located 580 kilometers south-southwest of Port au Prince, Haiti’s capital, and 620 kilometers southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, according to the bulletin issued at 8pm local time (1am Sunday GMT) by Miami-based NHC.

Eastern Cuba, from Camagüey province till Guantanamo is on alert against the passage of Matthew, which is expected to make landfall in the island between Monday and Tuesday.

Matthew is the most powerful hurricane to strike the Atlantic since Felix in 2007, when more than 130 people died as it wrought havoc in Nicaragua. EFE