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STORY: UN / CUBA HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 05:44
SOURCE: UNIFEED / OCHA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT OCHA FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / 12 MAY 2026, QUISICUABA NGO HAVANA, CUBA / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
15 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Cuba faces an increasingly complex situation with a humanitarian impact - And that is why we were there - well beyond the traditional, natural disaster response, which, again, we are familiar with.”
4. Wide shot, press room dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“But this cumulative, impact of climate shocks, hurricane, drought, economic contraction, and prolonged energy shortages due to measures placed on the country is turning in slow burner mode what were once short-term needs into a sustained, multifaceted emergency, undermining essential services.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Nowhere is the strain more visible than on the health system. The acute fuel shortages is affecting and restricting the delivery of humanitarian assistance where at the same time needs are rapidly rising. Predictable, efficient and principled access of humanitarian aid is urgent. That is our priority.”
8. Wide shot, press room dais
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We need to strengthen preparedness and secure resources, or Cuba will enter this season with severely diminished response capacity. Again, you remember I mentioned before Hurricane Melissa, before that, Rafael, before that Oscar and everything else in between.”
10. Wide shot, press room dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“94 million dollars is what we're asking for 2 million people, or basically one in every five Cubans. So far, we have less than 30 percent of the funds received, 30 million, of which a lot of that is also from the Central Emergency Response funds.”
12. Wide shot, press room dais
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Acting fast and working together is the only way to stop the situation from getting worse. We can't afford another humanitarian crisis. We already have a stretched humanitarian situation on the ground across all sectors, from getting worse and to protect those most in need in the months ahead.”
14. Wide shot, press room dais
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Altaf Musani, Director, Emergency Health Interventions, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Shortages - as outlined by my colleague - of fuel, electricity, medicines, medical supplies, are critically disrupting a hospital's ability to function. This includes emergency care, blood banks, laboratory immunisation programs, maternal and child, as well as surgical services. The human cost as outlined is already significant and continues to grow.”
16. Wide shot, press room dais
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Altaf Musani, Director, Emergency Health Interventions, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The impact extends well beyond health facilities. Disruption to electricity and fuel supplies are affecting safe water, food production, disruption to the cold chain, which all require fuel to function. Despite this, as mentioned by my colleague, health care workers continue to demonstrate resilience and commitment. This was most evident amongst the workforce that we visited in the hospital, where health care workers, who are also parents, are having to make impossible choices.”
18. Med shot, journalist
OCHA - 12 MAY 2026, HAVANA, CUBA
19. Various shots, OCHA’s Edem Wosornu and WHO’s Altaf Musani visiting the premises of the Quisicuaba NGO
Following her visit to Havana, the Director of the United Nations humanitarian office, Edem Wosornu, today (15 May) said Cuba faces “an increasingly complex situation” with a “cumulative, impact of climate shocks, hurricane, drought, economic contraction, and prolonged energy shortages due to measures placed on the country.”
This situation, Wosornu said, “is turning in slow burner mode what were once short-term needs into a sustained, multifaceted emergency, undermining essential services.”
Nowhere is the strain more visible, she said, “than on the health system” as “acute fuel shortages” are affecting and restricting the delivery of humanitarian assistance “where at the same time needs are rapidly rising.”
Ahead of the hurricane season, the humanitarian official said, “we need to strengthen preparedness and secure resources, or Cuba will enter this season with severely diminished response capacity.”
She said, “94 million dollars is what we're asking for 2 million people, or basically one in every five Cubans. So far, we have less than 30 percent of the funds received, 30 million, of which a lot of that is also from the Central Emergency Response funds.”
Wosornu said, “acting fast and working together is the only way to stop the situation from getting worse. We can't afford another humanitarian crisis. We already have a stretched humanitarian situation on the ground across all sectors, from getting worse and to protect those most in need in the months ahead.”
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director of Emergency Health Interventions, Altaf Musani, who travelled to Cuba with Wosornu, said shortages of fuel, electricity, medicines, and medical supplies, “are critically disrupting a hospital's ability to function.”
This, Musani said, “includes emergency care, blood banks, laboratory immunisation programs, maternal and child, as well as surgical services.”
The impact, he noted, “extends well beyond health facilities,” as disruption to electricity and fuel supplies “are affecting safe water, food production, disruption to the cold chain, which all require fuel to function.”
Fuel shortages in the nation have deepened after Washington took measures at the end of January to block oil supplies from entering the Caribbean nation.
UN officials warned that the situation has deteriorated in recent days, with fuel reserves nearly exhausted and no immediate imports expected.
