Haiti Conflict Drives Thousands Toward Famine, Reports Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti is facing a severe social and political crisis driven by gang violence, significantly increasing the number of people experiencing extreme hunger. Recent estimates suggest that approximately 5.4 million Haitians have gone a day or longer without food.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), at least 6,000 residents are now experiencing catastrophe-level hunger. This stage, often associated with famine, signifies that individuals are left with almost no food despite exhausting all coping mechanisms, resulting in starvation, destitution, and potential death.

The current number of people facing severe hunger has risen from just under 5 million in late March. The IPC warns this figure could exceed 5.5 million by next June, impacting nearly half of Haiti’s population of over 11 million.

In its report, the IPC highlighted the increasing violence in and around Port-au-Prince as a primary factor obstructing the supply of basic food items, thereby limiting households’ access to food both physically and financially. The report noted that high inflation rates are exacerbating the situation, with food expenditures accounting for up to 70% of household budgets.

Haiti’s hunger crisis has worsened considerably since 2014, with nearly half the population now facing severe food insecurity. In comparison, a decade ago, this figure was just 2%, according to the U.S. aid organization Mercy Corps.

The IPC’s notification regarding catastrophe-level hunger corresponds to Phase 5 on a scale utilized by U.N. agencies and aid organizations to assess food insecurity, which can ultimately lead to a famine declaration. For a famine to be officially declared, at least 20% of the affected population must experience extreme food shortages, with one in three children suffering from acute malnutrition and two out of every 10,000 individuals dying daily from starvation or related diseases.

Currently, about 18% of the Haitian population is estimated to be facing emergency-level hunger, categorized as Phase 4.

Those most affected by the crisis often reside in makeshift camps, housing some of the over 700,000 individuals displaced by ongoing violence. Many have been forced to flee without any belongings and lack the means to support their families.

"I lost my parents to the gangs. They burned them alive in our house, and now we can’t go back," recounted Rose Petit-Homme, a camp resident in Port-au-Prince.

Contributing to the worsening situation, the operator of the capital’s main port has extended a closure announced the previous week, which is expected to further increase shortages and drive up prices.

Moreover, on Monday, the United Nations Security Council renewed its mandate for a Kenyan-led international security force to assist Haitian police in combating gang violence. A year into this mission, however, troop deployment has been minimal, and funding remains limited.

Haiti’s interim government has requested that this force transition into a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission, but this proposal has faced opposition from China and Russia, both of which hold veto powers.