Cuba says US oil blockade preventing UN aid distribution

Cuba's government said Wednesday that the US oil blockade that has crippled the island is preventing the United Nations from distributing 170 containers of humanitarian aid.

US President Donald Trump has set his sights on ending more than six decades of communist rule in Cuba.

In January, he cut off oil supplies to Washington's arch-foe from its main supplier Venezuela and threatened other countries with sanctions if they came to Cuba's rescue.

Since then, only one oil tanker -- from Russia -- has made it through.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that 170 containers of UN aid worth $6.3 million "is not reaching beneficiaries due to the fuel shortage."

Writing on X, he stressed that the blockade was "not only hampering the performance of the Cuban economy" but also affecting the work of international organizations.

The blockade, coupled with expanded US sanctions that punish companies doing business with the Cuban state, has intensified the worst economic and energy crisis on the island in over a generation.

Parts of Havana have been without power for up to 30 hours at a time in recent days, and food, running water and medicine are in increasingly short supply.

Trump claims that Cuba, which lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) off Florida's coast, poses a major threat to US national security and floated the possibility of a "friendly takeover" of the island of 9.6 million people.

On Monday, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for the US sanctions to be "lifted immediately."

"Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable," he said.