Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, hit southwestern Jamaica on 28 October as a Category 5 system—the worst hurricane to hit the area since 1988—before crossing into eastern Cuba as a Category 3 the following day.
As the extent of the damage becomes clearer, the impact continues to grow in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma — the two most severely hit by Hurricane Melissa.
More than 54,000 people remain evacuated, 7,500 of them in state centers.
• One week after Hurricane Melissa passed through, more than 50 communities in the eastern region remain cut off due to flooding and infrastructure damage, according to Civil Defense reports.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the lifesaving contribution of JPY 500 million (US$3.3 million) from Japan to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to Palestinians facing severe food insecurity due to the conflict in Gaza and also escalating violence in the West Bank.
The Government of Japan has contributed US$2 million (approximately 300 million Japanese Yen) to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), enabling life-saving food assistance at a time when millions in Yemen face deepening hunger.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said during a parliamentary session last week that the Japanese government was making an “earnest effort” to accept “ill or injured” people from Gaza as part of a “medical evacuation.”
