STORYLINE
Gang violence in Port-au-Prince threatens more than a million food-insecure Haitians
Surging and deadly gang violence in the Haitian capital has contributed to runaway food insecurity for at least a million people there, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
“The situation is spiralling out of control already,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Haiti Country Director. “Large parts of Port-au-Prince are controlled by gangs; the data we have show that the situation over the past 90 days has gotten worse and already based on what is a very vulnerable place, we already had one million people in this city who were acutely food insecure.”
Speaking via Zoom from Port-au-Prince, Mr. Bauer explained that between 150 and 200 gangs operate there, and that things were getting “worse by the day” for Haitians.
“Since Friday there’s been fighting downtown in the port area, in Cité Soleil, and yesterday in La Saline, places that are very close to the port and also close to where hundreds of thousands of very poor people live.”
These included a heavily pregnant woman who had to shelter on the floor of her home for an entire day, for fear of being caught in the crossfire during a prolonged gunfight, the WFP official explained. The next day, just as she was able to leave her house, someone set fire to it. She later gave birth and now lives in a centre for displaced people.
According to two local youth-focused organizations, 13 per cent of the children surveyed in one troubled neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince, had been in contact with members of armed gangs who tried to recruit them.
“The context is gang violence, people are not able to work, people are not able to sell their produce and at the same time food prices are increasing,” Mr. Bauer said. “And Haiti is an import-dependent country so really at the forefront of what’s going on” – a reference to the fact that the Caribbean island imports 70 per cent of its food needs, and as elsewhere, has suffered from the global food and fuel crisis that has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on 24 February.
“Inflation here runs, has been running at 26 per cent,” the WFP official said. “Food inflation has been 52 per cent, this is according to the Haitian government and the analysis of the food basket they do here.”
To continue to ensure that the vulnerable Haitians receive assistance outside the capital, WFP has had to resort to using sea routes, rather than target-prone lorries.
“WFP set up a maritime service to bypass the gangs that are around Port-au-Prince, so what we do is we send the trucks to the port, they board a WFP-chartered ferry and that vessel goes either to the south or to the north, to ensure that humanitarian aid continues reaching all Haitians, no matter where they are.”
ends
STORY: Haiti Alert – WFP
TRT: 2 mins 36s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 July 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | UNRWA
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini will update the press on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Summary: WHO deems current public health risk posed by avian influenza A (H5N1) low. Virus detected in calves and dairy cattle in the U.S., but virus fragments in pasteurized milk are not infectious. Surveillance and information sharing are crucial in combating the spread of zoonotic viruses.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNMAS
The head of UN peacekeeping and demining reiterated calls on Monday for a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday as a first step to returning the war-ravaged enclave to some normality, while mine clearance experts warned that Gaza is now at its “most dangerous period”.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is gravely concerned by the escalating violence in and around El-Fasher city, North Darfur, where dozens of people have been killed in the past two weeks as hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have intensified., UN Human Rights spokesperson Seif Magango told the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press conference in Geneva Jeremy Laurence, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) briefed the journalist on the latest development in Iran.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
"WHO warns of widespread misuse of antibiotics during COVID-19 pandemic, fueling antimicrobial resistance."