High food inflation is combined with insecurity that makes access to basic foodstuffs difficult.
Nearly half of the Haitian population, or 4.9 million people, are struggling to feed themselves, warned Thursday the World Food Program (WFP), stressing that this figure has tripled compared to 2016.
“We cannot wait to intervene until the scale of this problem translates into deaths, because that is what is going to happen,” said the director of the WFP for Haiti, Jean-Martin Bauer, quoted in a statement of this UN agency based in Rome.
Galloping inflation makes it impossible to buy basic food products for millions of Haitians, while according to the World Bank Haiti is one of the ten countries most affected by food price inflation.
Insecurity prevents access to resources
The situation is aggravated by the presence of gangs in both urban and rural areas, which prevent residents, especially women, from moving around and having access to basic services. About 530 people have been killed and nearly 280 kidnapped since January by gangs that rage with impunity in Haiti, the UN said on Tuesday, which requested the deployment of a specialized support force.
This violence pushes the inhabitants to flee their homes. The UN estimates that by mid-March, at least 160,000 people were thus displaced inside the country and found themselves in a precarious situation. A quarter of the displaced people live in makeshift camps, with very limited access to basic services such as drinking water and sanitation. Famine particularly impacts children, who become more vulnerable to diseases such as cholera.
To face this crisis situation, the WFP needs 125 million dollars over the next six months. “We desperately need an increase in funding and a mobilization of political will. The world cannot wait for a major catastrophe before intervening”, insisted Jean-Martin Bauer.
