By: Staff Writer
August 27, 2024
A new United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report said that 5 million are facing food insecurity as the political and economic crisis lingers on in Haiti.
The recently released “Haiti-Advocacy note,” said that since March, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated rapidly as armed groups have escalated coordinated attacks in the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (ZMPAP) and the Artibonite department in the north. This surge in violence has pushed even more people into extreme vulnerability, not only in neighbourhoods and localities affected by armed groups, but also in areas far from the capital that have become host to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs).”
There are over 578,000 displaced internally in Haiti with 5 million facing food insecurity and a 125,000 facing malnutrition, which is up 20 percent since January of this year.
As the crisis in Haiti worsens, “deteriorating food security conditions means that people are even more at risk. The updated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) food security analysis conducted in March 2024 showed a significant worsening of the food situation. About 5 million people (nearly 50 per cent of the population, or one in two Haitians) are facing high levels of acute food insecurity from March to June 2024, compared to 4.3 million in the previous IPC projection of August 2023. This means over 530,000 additional people are in acute food insecurity (IPC3+) compared to previous estimates, including 243,500 who have fallen into an emergency situation.”
Months of violence have led to a deterioration of Haiti’s humanitarian crisis. Displacement has tripled in the last year in Haiti as gang violence continues to rock the Caribbean-island nation, with nearly 600,000 people on the run.
“The indiscriminate violence of armed groups and the near collapse of basic services have plunged Haiti into a humanitarian crisis unprecedented since 2010,” OCHA reported, referring to the devasting earthquake that struck the nation 14 years ago.
Following the spiralling security situation in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Artibonite in the north in February, the number of displaced persons has soared by 60 per cent, the report showed, using the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration
The violence continues to target civilian infrastructure, with only 24 per cent of hospitals remaining operational, OCHA reported. The insecurity has also left 1.5 million children shut out of classrooms.
Half of the 578,000 displaced people, desperately fleeing the capital in search of safety, had made their way south, where the vast majority are staying with already economically vulnerable host families.
However, basic social services, such as education, health and water, hygiene and sanitation, already insufficient to meet the needs of the local population, have been severely strained, OCHA reported.