A new assessment issued estimates that almost 6,000 people in Haiti are starving, with nearly half of the nation’s population of over 11 million people suffering from crisis levels of hunger or worse as gang violence chokes life in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
In response to gang violence that disrupts the flow of goods and keeps people from leaving their homes to purchase food, the number of Haitians experiencing crisis, emergency, and famine levels of hunger rose by 1.2 million in the last year, for a total of 5.4 million, according to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
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UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated, “This is one of the highest proportions of acutely food insecure people in any crisis around the world.”
The study stated that 2 million more Haitians suffer from extreme hunger and that 5,636 people—the worst category—live in temporary shelters located across the metropolitan region.
Action Against Hunger’s Haiti head, Martine Villeneuve, described the situation as “shocking.” “We were not expecting that level. Two million… is massive.”
Even though gang violence is a major contributing factor to the 2 million people who suffer from hunger, double-digit inflation has also reduced the amount of food that many Haitians can afford to buy; food now accounts for 70% of household expenses. In July, inflation reached 30%. Villeneuve told reporters that she was also surprised to learn that some of the 2 million people affected by hunger do not even reside in areas where gang violence is a problem.
Furthermore, portions of Haiti are currently undergoing recovery efforts following the earthquake that occurred in August 2021, many instances of drought, and Hurricane Matthew. This Category 4 hurricane made landfall in Haiti in 2016.
But most of the hunger is caused by gang violence, as gangs control 80% of Port-au-Prince and the routes leading to and from northern and southern Haiti, making it impossible for charitable organizations and farmers to distribute relief and supplies.
At least 1,379 deaths or injuries were recorded between April and June, while 428 kidnappings were reported. Furthermore, over 700,000 individuals have been rendered homeless in recent years due to gang violence.
Some towns have been freed by a U.N.-backed operation headed by Kenya that started in late June and aims to stop gang violence in Haiti. As the United States, Haiti, and other countries demand a U.N. peacekeeping force to ensure the finance and manpower that the existing mission lacks, authorities warn there is still much work to be done.
The report noted, “Haiti continues to face a worsening humanitarian crisis, with alarming rates of armed gang violence disrupting daily life, forcing more people to flee their homes and levels of acute food insecurity to rise.”
Just 2% of Haitians experienced food insecurity in 2014; that percentage has now skyrocketed to almost 50%, according to Mercy Corps, one of many NGOs that demanded increased funding on Monday.
According to Dujarric, until the end of the year, Haitian organizations and humanitarian food agencies require an extra $230 million.
According to the research, 70% of individuals residing in temporary shelters are facing acute hunger or worse. Joceline St-Louis, a 28-year-old mother of two boys, ages five and one, is one of those who is hungry. She remarked, “Food doesn’t come around very often,” and that she is dependent on others to provide for her kids’ food.
“When an organization does provide food, there’s a major fight,” she said.
To ensure her one-year-old child’s body “doesn’t collapse in my arms,” St-Louis stated she must take him to a clinic to give him a peanut butter mixture.
“I’m sometimes so depressed that I sometimes want to kill the kids and myself,” As she held the one-year-old in her arms as the five-year-old played with his buddies, she said softly.
Judeline Auguste, 39, stated in a different adjacent shelter that she and her 8-year-old son are completely dependent on remittances for food, but the money seldom lasts a week.
“It’s very rare that I can get a meal a day,” she stated. “My situation is hard not because of me, but because of my son. He looks at other people eating all the time, and he starts crying, ‘Mommy, I’m hungry.”
In the meantime, the capital and the country’s north, center, and south are home to critically hungry people.
There are days when Jean Yonel, his wife, and their seven kids eat nothing but spaghetti or white rice. Jean Yonel abandoned his house and his family after gangs invaded their area.
“I can’t provide every day for these children,” Yonel stated. “Sometimes we take just a spoonful of food and leave the rest of the food for the kids so they don’t die.”
Yonel used to be a mason, but now that building projects are few, he must look for wood to produce charcoal. His spouse is a secondhand clothing seller.
On days when they can’t afford a full supper for their children, she mixes flour with spinach to keep their bellies from growling.
