The United Nations released this Friday 160 million dollars from its emergency fund to address humanitarian crises, including that of Cuba, according to an announcement by the EFE agency based on statements from the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric.
The funds come from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and are distributed among a dozen countries and territories: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba, Mali, Niger, the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen.
Of the 160 million, 150 million will finance vital interventions in those twelve territories, while the 10 million remaining are reserved exclusively to address the needs of people with disabilities in those same crises.
Cuba would receive approximately four million dollars within that allocation, a modest amount considering the magnitude of the emergency the country is facing.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, warned that money alone "will not be enough" and called for greater political will to open access to aid and eliminate the obstacles that prevent the organization from fulfilling its mandate.
For the crises in Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, and Palestine, Fletcher called for “urgent diplomatic action” to ensure that assistance reaches those in need.
The UN also warned that the blockade of humanitarian access has become one of the main obstacles to its relief operations, hindering assistance to eleven million people considered a priority worldwide.
With this new release, the CERF has accumulated 483 million dollars distributed throughout 2026.
The allocation comes at a critical time for Cuba. Last March, the UN presented an expanded Action Plan for $94.1 million to assist nearly two million people in 63 municipalities across eight provinces, covering sectors such as energy, health, water, sanitation, food, and protection.
However, by mid-September, that plan had only received 42 million dollars, less than half of what was needed, with a deficit exceeding 50 million.
The energy crisis that the island is experiencing —with blackouts exceeding 20 hours a day in some areas— impacts access to drinking water, telecommunications, and healthcare services.
UNICEF warned in September that power outages threaten the vaccination of around 70,000 children, while the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that water shortages affect about 3.5 million people, approximately half of whom are in Havana.
In this context, the UNDP sent over 16,000 rechargeable lamps to Cuba for families impacted by Hurricane Melissa, funded by CERF itself, and the European Union allocated 10 million euros last July to alleviate the emergency.
The new funding injection from the CERF adds resources to a humanitarian plan that continues to fall short of the necessary financing to address a crisis that, at its core, is the result of decades of failed management by the Cuban regime.
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