Cuba is running out of time. We need fuel now to save lives

Four months into Cuba’s deepening energy crisis, the consequences are no longer abstract: they are visible in the rhythm of daily life. Streets fall silent before night has fully set in. Hospitals scale back operations. Small businesses close due to a lack of supplies. At dawn, exhaustion shows on people’s faces after long nights without electricity.

But the most serious toll is measured not in inconvenience but in health.

Tens of thousands of surgeries have been postponed nationwide. Pregnant women face irregular access to prenatal care. Newborns dependent on incubators or ventilators are at risk when power fails. Patients undergoing dialysis, cancer treatment or managing chronic illnesses depend on electricity not as a convenience but as a lifeline.

Doctors and nurses are striving to hold the system together under conditions that would be a challenge to healthcare anywhere. Meanwhile, patients wait in uncertainty, searching for a timeline to resume care – as if illness could be put on hold.

Cuba’s broader economic fragility, shaped by tightening external constraints and limited domestic resources, has been compounded by this energy shock. Its effects ripple through every system that sustains life.

A hospital, for example, needs more than light. It needs water pumped to wards and operating rooms, functioning food services, fuel for ambulances and reliable transport for patients and staff. When energy supplies falter, each of these systems begins to fail in turn.

Against this backdrop, humanitarian needs in Cuba remain acute and persistent. They are not resolved by limited fuel deliveries from abroad. While any additional supply may provide temporary relief, it is insufficient in scale and fails to address the structural constraints affecting essential sectors.

Access to fuel remains a determining factor for whether humanitarian action can operate at all.

In response, the United Nations system in Cuba, with the support of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has expanded its Hurricane Melissa response plan to address the cascading humanitarian impacts of the energy crisis. The objective is clear: save lives and prevent a rapid deterioration in critical indicators, while complementing national efforts.

During a recent visit to the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma – among the hardest-hit areas – I saw how even modest support can make a real difference. More than two million people were affected by Hurricane Melissa, which caused flooding, damaged livelihoods and disrupted basic services.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans lost access to safe drinking water in a country where most pumping systems depend on electricity.

The response had already mobilised $24m (£18m) before the energy crisis intensified. Yet sustaining and scaling up that effort depends on a basic condition: fuel to move aid through ports, across provinces and into communities.

For this reason, the current plan is designed to run through to the end of the year, with needs continuously monitored and the response adapted accordingly – always prioritising critical, life-saving interventions.

At its core, this is not a political issue. It is a human one.

No obstacle should stand in the way of a person’s right to a life with dignity, grounded in access to healthcare, water and essential services. The principles of the UN charter exist precisely for moments such as this.

Behind every statistic are families whose plans have been disrupted and whose resilience is being tested daily. For them, humanitarian action must move with urgency and clarity.

When lives are at stake, time is not a luxury: it is the difference between care and neglect, between recovery and decline. And it is running out.

Francisco Pichón is the United Nations resident coordinator in Cuba