Gang Violence Exacerbates Food Crisis in Haiti

On Tuesday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned that political unrest and street violence is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, where nearly half the population or 4.5 million people are starving.

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The deterioration of security, the economic crisis, and food insecurity have caused many Haitians to leave the country in desperation, PMU representative Jean-Martin Bauer said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), since June of last year over 36,000 people have fled in Port-au-Prince, where over a million people are directly affected by the violence.

“Haitians are on the edge: rising inflation, high food costs and deteriorating security make the situation unsustainable,” Bauer said, adding that gangs have taken over the main highways connecting the capital city with the rest of the country, which prevents 3.8 million people from accessing markets, basic services, and humanitarian aid.

The tweet reads," Dear Haiti. Since 03:00 today, exodus of the population of Cite-Soleil towards the airport road... They received an ultimatum to vacate the neighborhood due to hostilities, war between gangs.”

"This escalation of violence creates serious obstacles to humanitarian assistance operations, on which much of the Haitian population depends," he pointed out.

On the other hand, the effects caused by the Ukrainian conflict have been strongly felt in a Caribbean country that imports 70 percent of its cereals, which makes it especially vulnerable to the increase in the prices of basic products in international markets.

Over the last year, inflation has risen around 27 percent and the price of the food basket has increased 52 percent. Bauer estimates that humanitarian food assistance requires at least US$39 million to be able to maintain its operations in Haiti in the next six months.