The plan, released by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Cuba, seeks to serve more than one million people affected by the severe damage left by Hurricane Melissa in the eastern provinces.
MADRID, Spain.- The United Nations (UN) announced an assistance plan valued at 74.2 million dollars to support the recovery in the eastern provinces of Cuba after the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which left severe damage to infrastructure, essential services and agricultural production.
The plan was disseminated by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Cuba, according to reported the EFE agency, and is aimed at meeting the urgent needs of around one million people, although initial evaluations place the total number of seriously affected inhabitants in Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Guantánamo at 2.2 million.
Although so far the Cuban Government has not published an official balance of victims, the UN’s preliminary assessment indicates damage to some 60,000 homes, damage to more than 460 health centers and the interruption of activities in 1,552 schools, which represents more than half of the educational centers in those provinces. Agriculture also suffered significant losses, with more than 78,700 hectares of crops destroyed or seriously damaged.
Regarding energy and telecommunications services, the UN reports that approximately 75% of mobile telephony and up to 90% of radio stations were out of service, in addition to breaks in the fiber optic infrastructure and prolonged failures in the electrical grid. The situation is worsening due to the previous energy crisis that already affected the region.
The execution of this plan will require coordination between UN agencies, local institutions and community actors, with priority on the reestablishment of basic services, the protection of vulnerable populations and reconstruction with resilience criteria in the face of increasingly intense climate phenomena.
Previously, the UN had released $4 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as “anticipatory action” before the cyclone hit, although there is no public information on the use of these funds or independent oversight mechanisms.
Along with the UN plan, other international actors have announced complementary support. Among them The United States, which offered aid valued at three million dollars. The Norwegian Embassy in Cuba also announced a contribution of $400,000, according to its ambassador John Petter Opdahl.
However, as has happened in previous disasters, the regime manages these donations without accountability or external oversight, while affected communities face blackouts, food and drinking water shortages, infrastructure collapse, and lack of basic services.
