Geneva, Switzerland - Human rights experts at the United Nations on Thursday warned the international community it must act swiftly to prevent a "full-blown" humanitarian crisis in Cuba.

While Cuba has been under a US trade embargo since 1962, President Donald Trump has drastically ramped up pressure over recent months, cutting off fuel supplies and threatening to take over the island by force.

Washington's imposition of an effective oil blockade and numerous other sanctions have worsened economic conditions, leading to major shortages and contributed to widespread power outages.

Energy, transport, irrigation, and basic services are failing, disproportionately affecting women, children, older persons, and other vulnerable groups, the UN experts said in a press release on Thursday.

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"The humanitarian consequences are already unfolding into a full-blown crisis, threatening the rights to health, to life, to food, and to development," they said.

Since Washington launched its energy blockade in January, living conditions on the Caribbean island have worsened markedly.

For millions of Cubans, getting water and food, getting around and even sleeping through the night have become daily challenges.

They said UN agencies in Cuba had warned of mounting risks of food insecurity and shortages of medicines and basic necessities.

"Food must never be used as an instrument of political pressure. Measures that knowingly deprive a population of the means to survive strike at the most basic guarantees of the rights to life and diminish the core of human dignity," the experts said.

"The US government must cease all threats and hostile acts against Cuba's sovereignty and revoke all measures it has imposed on the country that stand contrary to international law."