The UN is raising the alarm over restrictions on oil exports to the communist island, which are affecting vital sectors of the country.

The situation is tense in Cuba as the United States imposed an energy blockade there in January, citing the "exceptional threat" that this territory, located only 150 km from the coast of Florida, would pose to American national security.

On Wednesday, the government shifted this policy, announcing that Venezuelan-origin oil could be resold and transported to the private sector in Cuba, provided that the transactions do not benefit the Havana regime.

But "the blockade persists and its humanitarian consequences are truly worsening day by day," said the UN official on the island, Francisco Pichon, during a video conference on Thursday. "What we are seeing on the ground is not a temporary shortage, but a more systemic energy shock that is becoming the main factor multiplying humanitarian risks," he warned.

"Let's be clear, the threat to people's lives is not rhetorical, and those who suffer first and the most are ordinary people, especially the most vulnerable," he added, describing the impacts on multiple sectors.

Supply chain severely disrupted

"In Cuba today, having fuel or not determines whether a hospital can function, whether water can reach homes, whether food is distributed, whether medicines are transported, etc."

He highlighted in particular the threats to the "five million people suffering from chronic diseases", including "one million cancer patients" whose treatments require energy, or the "20,000 newborns" who each year need incubators or ventilators.

He also stressed the problems of access to water on the island of 9.6 million inhabitants where "10% of the population is supplied with water by tanker trucks" and where 84% of water pumping systems require electricity.

"Food security is also deteriorating, the entire supply chain is disrupted, from farm to table," he further noted, adding that UN humanitarian operations were also affected by fuel shortages.