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Haiti
Nearly six million people in Haiti are experiencing severe hunger, with almost two million facing emergency levels of food insecurity, according to a new report released on Wednesday.
The worsening crisis in the country of nearly 12 million people is being driven by escalating gang violence and displacement, high food and fuel prices, and an extreme El Niño weather phenomenon threatening food security.
About one in two Haitians cannot consistently access enough food. The number of people facing severe hunger is expected to rise to 6.35 million – more than half the population – by mid-2027, according to an analysis published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multi-partner UN initiative that monitors food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide.
Rein Paulsen, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Office of Emergencies and Resilience, said violence and displacement were restricting people’s access to markets, farmland and agricultural inputs.
He said an intense El Niño phenomenon was also bringing much drier-than-normal conditions and higher temperatures to Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean.
Farmers are struggling to grow crops amid the lack of rainfall.
“Rain isn’t falling. You work the soil, but there is no rain. You plant your crops, and you end up with nothing to harvest,” said 36-year-old farmer Dieula Célestin.
With weather conditions and other challenges affecting agricultural production, the FAO is providing not only seeds but also poultry, ducks, goats and other livestock to help families secure food and generate income.
FAO Representative in Haiti Pierre Vauthier said livestock could be distributed at any time, without farmers having to wait for the planting season.
He said packages containing five chickens or two goats could immediately help families produce milk, eggs and meat for consumption and sale at local markets.
The number of Haitians facing severe hunger has increased by nearly a quarter of a million since the IPC’s previous report, released in April.
The UN’s World Food Programme said it needs $78 million to sustain its operations in Haiti through March. The latest report warned that “humanitarian assistance should be urgently scaled up to meet immediate needs.”
The worsening hunger crisis comes amid an escalation in fighting between armed gangs and a UN-backed security force, following an attack on October 18 in Port-au-Prince in which four Salvadoran aviation technicians went missing.
Since then, El Salvador has deployed more than 1,000 soldiers to Haiti.
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