Falana urges African nations to back Cuba against US sanctions
- Femi Falana spoke at a Lagos rally by the Nigeria Solidarity Movement with Cuba on October 24.
- He traced Cuba's military and medical support for African liberation and health crises.
- He asked African governments to vote against US sanctions on Cuba at the UN on October 27-28.
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has called on African governments to stand with Cuba against United States sanctions, saying the continent owes the Caribbean nation a debt for its role in Africa's liberation struggles.
Falana spoke in Lagos on October 24 at a rally organised by the Nigeria Solidarity Movement with Cuba, according to the text of his speech published by Vanguard and Sahara Reporters.
He said Cuba's support for Africa began after its 1959 revolution, when Fidel Castro made solidarity with the continent a cornerstone of foreign policy. He cited a 1961 military mission to Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah, arms and medical supplies to Algeria's independence fighters in 1962, and Ernesto Che Guevara's visits to liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies and the Congo.
Falana said thousands of Cuban troops fought alongside the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), with no fewer than 55,000 taking part in the 1987-1988 battle of Cuito Cuanavale. He argued that South Africa's military setbacks there pushed the apartheid regime into negotiations that led to Namibia's independence in 1990 and South Africa's in 1994.
He also pointed to Cuban medical help, including more than 460 health workers sent to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, and hundreds of personnel deployed across Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said Cuba has trained African students in medicine, engineering and other fields, and helped some countries with malaria and dengue control.
Sanctions and the UN vote
Falana described the US economic blockade on Cuba, in place since 1962, as illegal and a breach of the United Nations Charter. He said fresh US measures blocking oil from reaching Cuba have pushed up prices for food, medicine and transport, and caused fuel shortages and long blackouts.
He accused Washington of manufacturing charges against Raul Castro and five other Cubans to justify military action, and criticised Secretary of State Marco Rubio over a social media post he said invited Cubans into a "discreet partnership with the CIA" to overthrow their government. Those are Falana's allegations; no court has convicted anyone named.
He said the US Supreme Court held in a February 20, 2026 ruling in Learning Resources Inc v Trump that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are unconstitutional, meaning the oil-related tariff threat is void. He urged the US Congress to lift the sanctions.
Falana asked African Union member states to vote at the United Nations on October 27-28, 2026 against the sanctions and embargo. He said about 4,300 Cubans died in conflicts in Africa, half of them in Angola.
What happens next: The UN vote Falana referenced falls on October 27 and 28, so African governments' positions should become clear within days.
