The Unit­ed Na­tions has launched a US$74 mil­lion fund to aid Cu­ba in the wake of de­struc­tion caused by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

The UN said that an es­ti­mat­ed  2.2 mil­lion Cubans re­main in dire need of as­sis­tance across the east­ern provinces of Gran­ma, San­ti­a­go de Cu­ba, Hol­guin, and Guan­tanamo fol­low­ing the pas­sage of the cat­e­go­ry 5 storm.

A for­mal Plan of Ac­tion was an­nounced by the UN sys­tem in Cu­ba in sup­port of the gov­ern­ment-dri­ven na­tion­al re­sponse “to get the coun­try back on its feet.”

UN Deputy Spokesper­son Farhan Haq said that the plan fo­cus­es on health, wa­ter and san­i­ta­tion; shel­ter, ed­u­ca­tion, and ear­ly re­cov­ery. He said the plan al­so pays spe­cial at­ten­tion to the needs of women, chil­dren, and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble groups.

The UN said the Of­fice for the Co­or­di­na­tion of Hu­man­i­tar­i­an Af­fairs (OHA), its aid co­or­di­na­tion of­fice, had re­leased four mil­lion US dol­lars in emer­gency fund­ing ahead of the storm, while UN agen­cies have un­locked an ad­di­tion­al sev­en mil­lion US dol­lars, leav­ing a fund­ing gap of about US$64 mil­lion to meet ur­gent needs.

The UN said that, in cri­sis-wracked Haiti, around 16,000 peo­ple have been dis­placed in to­tal, with 43 re­port­ed dead, dozens in­jured, and 13 still miss­ing.

In Pe­tit-Goâve, Haiti, alone, the UN said 25 peo­ple have lost their lives – the high­est num­ber of ca­su­al­ties record­ed from the hur­ri­cane.

On Wednes­day, the UN said a team from OCHA, along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the UN’s child and emer­gency food agen­cies, were on-site to co­or­di­nate with lo­cal au­thor­i­ties and part­ners to strength­en re­sponse ef­forts.

The UN said its World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) needs around US$18 mil­lion to as­sist near­ly 190,000 peo­ple in Haiti.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, WFP re­port­ed that 40 per cent of house­holds in the hard­est-hit com­munes in Haiti now have a poor food con­sump­tion score, rep­re­sent­ing a 20 per cent in­crease since the dis­as­ter.

OCHA said the UN said it and its hu­man­i­tar­i­an part­ners are “step­ping up aid re­sponse” in the Grand Sud re­gion, the area in Haiti most se­vere­ly im­pact­ed by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

Mean­time, the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment said that Prime Min­is­ter Mark Car­ney held talks on Wednes­day with Ja­maica’s Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness, who is al­so the chair of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) group­ing.

“Prime Min­is­ter Car­ney ex­pressed Cana­da’s deep­est sym­pa­thies to the peo­ple of Ja­maica fol­low­ing the de­struc­tion caused by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa,” said a Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment state­ment.

“Prime Min­is­ter Car­ney af­firmed Cana­da’s com­mit­ment to sup­port Ja­maica in its re­cov­ery, in­clud­ing through re­cent emer­gency food, wa­ter, and health as­sis­tance, along­side hu­man­i­tar­i­an part­ners.”

The state­ment said Car­ney al­so high­light­ed the ac­ti­va­tion of the Cana­di­an Armed Forces’ op­er­a­tional sup­port hub in Ja­maica “to help en­able the de­liv­ery of re­gion­al dis­as­ter re­lief ef­forts”.

CMC/nk/ir/2025

UNIT­ED NA­TIONS, Nov 6, CMC –