ROMA – While gang warfare continues to hold Haiti, particularly the capital Port-au-Prince, at bay, generating security problems that prevent citizens from living freely, over five million people struggle to feed themselves and their families every day. day and among these two million are already struggling with malnutrition and diseases linked to nutritional deficiencies. This number makes Haiti the country with the most serious food crisis in the world. There are at least six thousand internally displaced people and they are almost all concentrated in Port-au-Prince, where they live in temporary and spontaneous shelters, without having access to essential services. The latter data were processed and published by National Coordination of Food Security of Haiti, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
The crisis of financing. International agencies, the United Nations and NGOs working in Haiti are short of $230 million to boost life-saving food programs through the end of the year. Furthermore, most of them continue to have difficulty reaching people living in areas controlled by armed groups.
The conflict. Violent attacks and fighting linked to armed groups’ aspirations to control Port-au-Prince in particular increased in early 2024, blocking ports and airports and consequently also all work providing food parcels and services. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes in search of safety: in the last six months the number of internally displaced people has reached 700 thousand. Many Haitians have found refuge in around a hundred sites in the capital, including schools and public buildings. But the places where they live are overcrowded and unhealthy, a hotbed of diseases such as cholera – which is already spreading in some areas of the city.
The cost of food. People have lost their incomes and the ability to support themselves, so today they find themselves struggling to buy food every day not only due to shortages but also soaring prices. WFP recorded a 5 percent increase in the cost of the food basket, or the money needed to buy a month’s worth of food for a family of five; this variation is due in particular to the lack of flour and rice, which are the basis of the Haitian diet. In the North-West of the country the basket increased by as much as 16 percent.
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– 2024-10-02 20:06:42
