GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations (UN) said Friday it was deeply alarmed by the crisis unfolding in Cuba as the island nation struggles under what amounts to a United States (US) blockade of oil deliveries.

President Donald Trump has vowed to starve Cuba of oil after last month’s US military ousting of Nicolas Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, which had been communist Cuba’s main oil supplier.

“We are extremely worried about Cuba’s deepening socio-economic crisis — amid a decades-long financial and trade embargo, extreme weather events, and the recent US measures restricting oil shipments,” United Nation (UN) human rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told a media briefing in Geneva.

“This is having an increasingly severe impact on the human rights of people in Cuba.

UN rights chief Volker Turk “reiterates his call on all states to lift unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate impact on the population. Policy goals cannot justify actions that in themselves violate human rights,” the spokeswoman said.

Hurtado said that given the dependence of health, food, and water systems on imported fossil fuels, oil scarcity in Cuba had put the availability of essential services at risk.

“Intensive care units and emergency rooms are compromised, as are the production, delivery, and storage of vaccines, blood products, and other temperature-sensitive medications,” she said.

More than 80 per cent of water pumping equipment in Cuba depends on electricity, she added, saying power cuts were undermining access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Miami-born son of Cuban immigrants, have made no secret of their desire to bring about regime change in Havana.

The island of 9.6 million inhabitants, under a US trade embargo since 1962, has for years been mired in a severe economic crisis marked by extended power cuts and shortages of fuel, medicine and food.

“The long-term, sustained impact of sectoral sanctions creates economic hardship and weakens the state’s capacity to fulfil its core responsibilities, including providing protection and assistance services. This increases the risk of fuelling social disruption in Cuba,” Hurtado said.

Cuba needs to respond to the situation in line with international human rights law, she added, prioritising mediation, de-escalation, and the safeguarding of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.