Bi-Weekly Press Briefing: Haiti Hunger And Violence - WFP

Nearly half of Haiti’s population – 4.9 million people - are struggling to feed themselves while 1.8 million people are facing famine-like conditions and in need of urgent assistance, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday.

Soaring inflation and lawless armed groups are the main causes for the county sliding into a “hunger emergency”, the agency explained.

“We're now facing some of the worst food security conditions on record in Haiti, with five million people being acutely food insecure”, said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Country Director in Haiti, when speaking from Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince to media at the United Nations in Geneva. “This is significant because it's a number that's tripled in the past few years.” He added that “the situation is getting worse and Haiti is slowly sliding into a hunger emergency. This is because of violence in the country, armed groups are now affecting daily life for millions of people”. 

In late 2022, catastrophic IPC (Integrated Phase Classification which describes the severity of food emergency) phase 5 which means hunger conditions were recorded in the Cité Soleil commune of the capital, Port-au-Prince, during a period of intense armed group clashes.                       

Due to high costs of seeds and fertilizers farmers have been forced to reduce areas at a time when the spread of armed groups has plagued rural areas with violence.

“The area of lower Artibonite, which is Haiti's breadbasket, has been the scene of confrontations between armed groups”, said WFP’s country director. “There's also been widespread inflation, which has led to the doubling of the price of a basic food basket here. This is why we have five million people now facing acute food insecurity in the country”.

According to WFP there has been a steady deterioration in food security, with the number of hungry people increasing threefold since 2016, and hunger driving criminality.

“What we need to understand about Haiti is that hunger and violence are intertwined”, said Mr. Bauer. “They feed off each other because the violence causes displacement, it causes loss of assets, it forces people to move, people lose their jobs. And that's why we have five million people in acute food insecurity, is that this violence is very much disrupted the very fabric of life in this country”.

In past years, criminal activity, political deadlock and a deepening economic crisis have contributed to a multifaceted crisis in Haiti. WFP’s operations in Haiti are underfunded and require US$ 125 million over the coming six months. 

“The World Food Programme was able to reach 1.6 million people in 2022, and this year we've already been able to reach 850,000 people with essential assistance”, said WFP’s Mr. Bauer. “This means that even though the situation is dangerous, even though it's risky, we are able to help people”.

Soaring inflation has made a basic food basket unaffordable for millions of Haitians. Haiti is among the 10 countries most affected by food price inflation, according to the World Bank.

“For more than a year this country has faced a high level of food prices, and it's been an issue we're trying to respond to now in terms of our own budgets”, said Mr. Bauer. “We've had to increase the amount of money we give people to make sure that they can buy the same basket of goods. As I said, the same basket of goods in Haiti has doubled year-on-year in local currency”.

In the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince which is also the epicentre of violence in Haiti, families have been living under the control of non-state armed groups enduring restricted movement and reduced access to food, water and sanitation services.  

“Haiti needs peace and security, people need to be able to send their kids to school without worrying for their safety”, emphasized Mr. Bauer. “People need to be able to go to the clinic without worrying about their own safety. Farmers need to be able to send their produce to markets without fearing for losing their work”. 

-ends-