The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned this Friday that hunger in Cité Soleil, an urban neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, in Haiti, has reached catastrophic levels, or the highest level -5- in the Integrated Classification of Food Safety Phases (CIF).
According to the latest analysis conducted by the CIF, a record 4.7 million people are currently facing extreme hunger, which includes 1.8 million in the emergency phase and, for the first time in Haiti, 19,000 individuals at a level classified as catastrophic.
Over the last three years, Cité Soleil has experienced a worrying increase in food insecurity. This insufficiency currently affects 65% of its population, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.and 5% of its inhabitants require urgent humanitarian aid.
The unbridled increase in violence by armed groups vying for control of the enclave caused its residents to lose access to their jobs, markets, and health and nutrition services. Many of its inhabitants had to flee or hide in their houses.
Food security not only affects that neighborhood of the capital, but also deteriorated in rural areas, with several of them going from crisis level -3- to emergency level -4-.
Crop losses due to poor below-average rainfall and the 2021 earthquake, which devastated parts of Grand’Anse, Nippes and Sud departments, were other factors that worsened living conditions for Haitians.
During the current year and despite the instability in Port-au-Prince, WFP provided emergency assistance to more than 100,000 people in the metropolitan area. During 2021, it helped 1.3 million people and plans to reach 1.7 million Haitians in 2022.
The agency needs US$105 million for crisis response over the next six months, while FAO urgently needs some US$33 million to help more than 470,000 people in situations of extreme vulnerability.
Runaway inflation, skyrocketing prices and an outbreak of cholera
To the devastating effect of natural phenomena and the constant political turmoil that the country experienced for years, we must now add the beginning of the world food crisis, which led to the increase in food and fuel prices. This combination of circumstances caused a growing civil unrest that has now plunged Haiti into chaos, completely paralyzing economic activities and transportation.
The basic food basket is out of reach for many Haitians. The inflation remains at 33% and the price of gasoline has doubled. The situation is aggravated by a recent outbreak of cholera and the lack of water transport.
The outbreak already affects nearly 100,000 children under the age of five who suffer from severe acute malnutrition, reported UNICEF.
The UN Children’s Fund has warned that acutely malnourished children have weak immune systems and are three times more likely to die if they contract cholera, further reinforcing the need for urgent action to contain the disease.
Since the first notification on October 2, 357 suspected cases of cholera have been registered, of which more than half correspond to children under 14 years of age. Children between the ages of one and four are most at risk.
In Cité Soleil, where the first case of cholera was recorded, up to 8,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from malnutrition and cholera unless urgent action is taken to contain this threat.
UNICEF launched a preliminary appeal for the cholera-specific response for $22 million. So far, this appeal has not received funding.
