4 million people face “acute food insecurity” in Haiti, says UN food agency official
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Four million people face “acute food insecurity” and a million of them are on the verge of famine, the head of the United Nations food agency in the country said Tuesday of the Caribbean ravaged by conflict.
Jean-Martin Bauer said during a virtual press conference that he is “sounding the alarm” because the recent increase in gang violence made a very bad situation even worse and displaced an additional 15,000 people – just over the first weekend of March in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
This brings the total number of displaced people in Haiti to more than 360,000, he said, and the UN says half of them are children. The country has more than 11 million inhabitants.
Bauer said there were 4 million Haitians suffering from food insecurity and hunger during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and that number has not decreased, but the number on the brink of starvation has increased to a million.
Port-au-Prince has been transformed into “a bubble” where gangs control the roads, the port and airport are closed and no one can enter or leave, Bauer said.
The World Food Program director said the agency and its partners had launched a hot meal service for newly displaced people in the capital, starting with 2,000 meals a day and now up to nearly 14,000 meals a day .
But he added that the WFP warehouse would run out of supplies within weeks unless the port was reopened to replenish the agency’s stocks.
Haiti relies on food imports for 50% of its food supply, and Bauer said the WFP can confirm that the cost of a food basket is increasing in Port-au-Prince as well as elsewhere in Haiti.
There was unrest in January and food prices jumped 25% in the south where roadblocks were erected and trucks were unable to reach Port-au-Prince with basic necessitieshe said, and there was a shortage of propane which is the basic fuel, including for cooking.
In recent days, due to gang violence, food prices have jumped at least 10 percent, Bauer said.
The economy of rural areas outside the capital depends on links with Port-au-Prince, he explained, and food prices have also increased elsewhere in the country due to the disruption in trade.
A WFP survey found that as prices rise, household incomes fall because people can’t go to work, are “sheltering in place” and aren’t earning money, Bauer said.
Asked about the impact of the Prime Minister The resignation of Ariel Henrywhich will come into effect once a transitional presidential council is established, Bauer said he is not good at interpreting political dynamics “but we certainly hope there will be an improvement in security.”
Insecurity currently prevents people from doing very simple things, like taking their children to school, going to the supermarket or working, which are “extremely risky”, he said.
Speaking from Cap-Haitien, in northern Haiti, Bauer stressed, however, that the focus cannot only be on security,
“We also need a robust humanitarian response,” he said.
But UN humanitarian appeal for $674 million for Haiti this year, funding is only 2.6%.
On a positive note, Bauer said that thanks to the supplies WFP can purchase from local farmers, it was able to feed about 160,000 schoolchildren in northern and southern Haiti and other quiet areas in the part of an ongoing program.
He said that despite access difficulties due to the violence, WFP was able to distribute money to some of Haiti’s poorest people on their cell phones.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that many health facilities had been forced to close their doors due to gang violence.
Blood shortages persist at the National Blood Transfusion Center and efforts are underway to bring in blood from the neighboring Dominican Republic, he said.
