PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, (CMC) – The United Nations (UN) and its partners are to launch an appeal for US$720 million to support more than three million people in Haiti where gangs, hunger and cholera have plunged nearly half the population into humanitarian need.

The 2023 funding appeal is the largest for the Caribbean country since the devastating 2010 earthquake and more than double the amount requested last year.

The UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said the number of Haitians who require aid to survive doubled over the past five years to 5.2 million and the aim is to reach 60 per cent, or 3.2 million people.

The full 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, which will be launched on Wednesday, April, 19, comes at “a critical time”, said Ulrika Richardson, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.

“With the situation in the country rapidly deteriorating, this year’s plan will address the most immediate humanitarian and protection needs while strengthening people’s and institution’s resilience to natural shocks,” she said, adding “at the same time, what the people of Haiti desperately want is peace and security, and we should all support efforts to that end”.

OCHA said the key driver of the crisis is gang violence, which continues to spread across the country. It said an estimated 80 per cent of the metropolitan area of the capital Port-au-Prince is either under the control or the influence of gangs.

“There is a constant climate of fear, especially in Port-au-Prince. Haitians put their lives at risk simply by trying to go to work, feed their families, or take their children to school,” said Richardson.

OCHA said armed violence disproportionately impacts women and girls, but boys are also affected.

Rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence is being used to terrorise the population, including children as young as age 10, the UN agency said. Meanwhile, many gangs also recruit children into their ranks.