Last month, President Donald Trump said he expects to have “the honour of taking Cuba.” He bragged about his capacity “to do anything” and predicted that after 67 years of communist rule, the “weakened nation” would collapse under US pressure.
Since the start of the year, the US has cut off oil shipments to Cuba as a strategy to squeeze the island country’s economy into submission and overthrow the communist government.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on countries selling oil to the island; a move experts regard as coercive economic pressure or “bully diplomacy” designed to isolate Cuba and deepen its domestic crises.
Three months later, the result is a growing humanitarian crisis and worsening economic instability.
Cubans now face daily blackouts that can last longer than 16 hours; bus stops are empty; families are turning to wood and coal for cooking; and tourism facilities have closed.
The once-vaunted medical system is also teetering on the brink. Hospitals can no longer function at optimum. Dialysis, chemotherapy, and other life-saving services are being disrupted. Around 96,000 patients are waiting in line for suspended surgeries. Water is in short supply.
However, African countries, with whom Cuba shares strong historical ties linked to nationalist, anti-colonial struggles, have opted for a passive and largely muted response to what the Castro communist regime has termed economic genocide.
In March, President Donald Trump said he expects to have “the honour of taking Cuba.” He bragged about his capacity “to do anything” and predicted that after 67 years of communist rule, the “weakened nation” would collapse under US pressure. He has also repeatedly warned that Cuba “is next” on his list and would turn his attention fully to the country after the war with Iran.
Two weeks ago, Mr Trump expanded the sanctions to include target officials, entities “operating in Cuba’s energy, defence, mining and financial sectors”, and also those considered by the US to be “complicit in corruption or human rights violations”, a policy China described as an infringement on Cuba’s right as a state and a violation of international law.
Washington, through the policy, has effectively been paralysing the island, which produces less than 40 per cent of the fuel it needs to power the economy.
Several American presidents have imposed sanctions on Cuba, but none have been as extreme as those of the Trump administration, which aims to force a change of government and impose a pro-American government on the Island country.
Resistance to US action has had little practical effect, and among African countries with which the Cuban state shares strong, historical ties, it is largely non-existent.
Rather, African countries watch from the sidelines as the US asphyxiates Havana, without extending the support needed to keep the island from dropping to its knees.
Usman Ayegba, a university lecturer and expert in international relations, diplomacy, and politics, described the reluctance of African countries to stand by a key ally as both understandable and disturbing.
Cuba’s relations with Africa predate the Cold War era. The Caribbean country played a pivotal role in the continent’s apartheid and liberation struggle.
When Cubans overthrew the Batista government and ran US imperialism out of their Island in 1959, it ushered in a socialist government led by Fidel Castro, who was keen on supporting Africa. So, while the country faced a barrage of US sanctions, it nonetheless extended support to liberation movements in the country.
Cuba’s first major intervention came in Algeria between 1961 and 1963. Shortly after independence from France, the country became vulnerable to external pressure, particularly from neighbouring Morocco, which sought to exert control over a disputed border area.
During the Sand War, Fidel Castro sent military equipment, advisers, and a medical brigade to support Algeria.
Havana also extended support to Congo during its liberation struggle around 1965 after a post-independence civil war backed by the West. The Castro regime supplied arms and troops to the Simba rebel forces. The Cuban mission in Congo was led by Che Guevara, a prominent guerrilla leader and revolutionary, who also gave an impassioned speech on the “tragic case of Congo” at the UN General Assembly. The mission, however, was unsuccessful.
Cuba’s role in Angola changed the course of history on the continent. Its decision to support the Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government in 1975 during the Angolan Civil War, most decisively through its military intervention at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, helped shift the regional balance of power.
It contributed to Namibia’s independence and accelerated the end of apartheid-era rule in Southern Africa.
Cuba’s support extended well beyond military intervention. It made significant contributions in healthcare, education, and technical development across multiple countries.
In Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, South Africa, and Namibia, Cuban medical teams and educators helped expand healthcare access and literacy programmes in the post-independence period and through the Cold War era. All while the US and Europe regarded Cuba as a soviet proxy.
Between 2010 and 2019, Cuba’s intervention shifted primarily toward humanitarian and medical service exports to underserved countries, benefiting Africa immensely.
During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the country deployed about 256 doctors and health professionals to Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the epicentre of the epidemic.
As the activist lawyer, Femi Falana, put it at the time, Cuba was the only country that supported Africa in the “war against Ebola without stigmatising or discriminating against them.”
During the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Cuba sent around 1,200 health professionals to African and Caribbean countries worst hit by the disease. Around 200 medics were deployed to South Africa, which reported more than 4 million positive cases.
Medical service was also Cuba’s most lucrative export. Although there were concerns about worker exploitation, the country generated substantial revenue by leasing professionals to countries where local healthcare systems struggle to fill posts.
The country was generating around $11 billion each year through its “army of white coats” despite being isolated by US sanctions for years.
Before 2019, when the US, under Mr Trump’s first administration, began targeting countries that accepted Cuba’s medical labour exports, Cuba had deployed around 50,000 Cuban doctors to underserved areas in 67 countries, including Ghana, Angola, Botswana, and Algeria, to fill gaps in health systems.
Many Nigerian students have also studied medicine in Cuba under scholarship programmes.
