UN agencies warn ‘catastrophic’ hunger recorded in Haiti for first time
UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Two United Nations (UN) agencies have warned of “catastrophic” hunger being recorded in Haiti for the first time.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said that “an unrelenting series of crises has trapped vulnerable Haitians in a cycle of growing desperation, without access to food, fuel, markets, jobs and public services.”
The agencies said that hunger has reached a “catastrophic level” – the highest level 5, on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification index, or IPC – in the capital’s Cité Soleil neighbourhood.
According to the latest IPC analysis, a record 4.7 million people are currently facing acute hunger (IPC 3 and above), including 1.8 million people in Emergency phase (IPC 4) and, for the first time ever in Haiti, 19,000 people are in Catastrophe phase, phase 5.
FAO and WFP said that, currently, 65 per cent of Cité Soleil’s population, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, are in high levels of food insecurity, with five percent of them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
“Increased violence, with armed groups vying for control of the vast and now lawless area of Port-au-Prince, has meant that residents have lost access to their work, markets and health and nutrition services…“Many have been forced to flee or just hide indoors,” the agencies said.
FAO and WFP said food security has also continued to deteriorate in rural areas in Haiti, with several going from Crisis to Emergency levels.
Harvest losses due to below average rainfall and the 2021 earthquake that devastated parts of the Grand´Anse, Nippes and Sud departments, are among the other devastating factors, beyond the political and economic crisis, FAO and WFP said.
“WFP stands with the people of Haiti – serving the vulnerable and helping the poorest,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Country Director in Haiti. “We are here to ensure schoolchildren get a nutritious meal each day, families meet their basic food needs and communities are empowered.
“This is a time of tumult in Haiti,” he added. “But there is a way forward. We all need to be steadfast, and focus on delivering urgent humanitarian assistance and supporting long-term development.”
José Luis Fernández Filgueiras, FAO Representative in Haiti, said: “We need to help Haitians produce better, more nutritious food to safeguard their livelihoods and their futures, especially in the context of a worsening food crisis.
“Resource mobilisation efforts must be scaled up in order to strengthen the resilience of households targeted by emergency food assistance to increase their self-reliance,” he added.
The UN said that, for years, natural hazards and political turmoil have taken a toll on Haitians who were already in need in both rural and urban areas.
“The onset of the global food crisis, with rising food and fuel prices, has led to growing civil unrest that has plunged Haiti into chaos, completely paralysing economic activities and transport…The basic food basket is out of reach for many Haitians. Inflation stands at a staggering 33 percent, and the cost of petrol has doubled,” the UN said.
Despite the volatile security situation in the capital, Port-au-Prince, WFP said it provided more than 100,000 people with emergency assistance in the metropolitan area in 2022.