4 million people face ‘acute food insecurity’ in troubled Haiti, says UN food agency official
UNITED NATIONS — Four million people face “acute food insecurity” and a million of them are one step away from famine, the director of the UN Food Agency said on Tuesday.
Jean-Martin Bauer told a virtual press conference that he is “sounding the alarm” because the recent increase in gang violence has made a very bad situation even worse and displaced another 15,000 people – just during the first weekend of March in the capital. Port-au-Prince.
That 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 four million food insecure and hungry Haitians during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and that number has not decreased, but the number on the brink of famine has escalated to a million.
Port-au-Prince has turned into a “bubble” where gangs control the roads, the port and airport are closed and no one can get in or out, Bauer said.
The director of the World Food Program said the agency and its partners have launched a hot meal service for newly displaced people in the capital, starting with 2,000 meals per day and now increasing to almost 14,000 meals per day.
But he said the WFP warehouse will run out of supplies in a few weeks unless the port is reopened to replenish the agency’s supplies.
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 rising both in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti.
There were disturbances in January and food prices rose 25% in the south, where roadblocks emerged and trucks were unable to reach Port-au-Prince with basic needs, he said, and there was a shortage of propane, the basic necessity. fuel, also for cooking.
As a result of the gang violence, food prices have risen by at least 10% in recent days, Bauer said.
The economy in rural areas outside the capital relies on connections to Port-au-Prince, he said, and food prices have also risen elsewhere in the country due to disrupted trade.
A WFP study shows that as prices rise, household incomes fall because people can’t go to work, are “sheltering in place” and not making money, Bauer said.
Asked about the impact of Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation, which will take effect once a transitional presidential council is established, Bauer said he is not good at reading political dynamics “but we certainly hope that there will be an improvement in the safety will take place.”
Insecurity is preventing people from doing very simple things right now, like taking their children to school, going to the grocery store or going to work, which are “extremely risky,” he said.
However, speaking from Cap Haitien in northern Haiti, Bauer emphasized that the focus cannot only be on security,
“We also need a robust humanitarian response,” he said.
But the UN’s $674 million humanitarian appeal for Haiti this year is only 2.6% funded.
On a positive note, Bauer said that thanks to supplies it can purchase from local farmers, WFP was able to feed about 160,000 schoolchildren in northern and southern Haiti and other quiet areas on Monday, as part of an ongoing program.
He said that despite access problems caused by the violence, WFP has been able to deliver money to some of Haiti’s poorest through their mobile phones.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that many health facilities have been forced to close due to the 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.