PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, (CMC) – The head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti, Jean-Martin Bauer, is warning that with armed gangs in charge of key transport routes in the country, there could be famine conditions unless a robust humanitarian aid plan is put in place.

Bauer believes that Haiti is facing an unprecedented crisis, which could get even worse. He says, for this reason, there is no time to waste.

“It’s difficult to believe that a mere two hours flight from Miami, a staggering 4.7 million people – half of Haiti’s population – are in the throes of a food crisis. In the Cité Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, 19,000 people are suffering at the ‘catastrophe-level on the global scale for measuring food insecurity.

“In the 1980s, I used to visit Haiti on family trips; my mother fled to the US in the 1960s and I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC. The country was very poor then but able to feed itself. Now as I witness its struggle, coordinating the World Food Programme’s response, I cannot deny feeling affected on a deeply personal level,” Bauer added.

“I speak Creole. I grew up eating djon djon rice and joumou soup. I’ve always been acutely aware of Haiti’s rich history,” he said.

He said in the 1990s, there was a series of coups and a trade embargo, and people risked their lives to leave on boats. Free market policies ruined Haiti’s smallholder farmers and left the country heavily reliant on food imports. A succession of disasters followed, including the 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak, hurricane Matthew in 2016, and the Southern earthquake of 2021.

“Things are now at a breaking point. This crisis will not pass – it needs renewed and robust humanitarian assistance,” Bauer said, adding “I am often asked why things are in fact so bad, so close to my family’s adopted home.

“I answer that Haiti is starving because gangs have taken control of ports and roads. This cut off communities from both the farms that feed them and from essential humanitarian aid. In the past year, food and fuel prices have skyrocketed.”

In September, protests and widespread looting erupted. Roadblocks brought the country to a standstill, what Haitians call a peyi lok (lockdown). The peyi lok that began on 12 September felt a lot like the ones that occurred worldwide during the early months of the COVID pandemic – except that people were now forced to stay home by fear and violence, rather than by a dangerous disease.

Armed groups had seized the main fuel import terminal, blocking flows of diesel, the economy’s lifeblood. Humanitarians also came under attack, two of WFP’s warehouses were looted, depriving thousands of essential food assistance.