Food stocks in strife-torn nation could run out in weeks, UN agency warns
The United Nations’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned its stocks in Haiti could run out by the end of the month as rampant gang violence hampers access.
The Caribbean nation has been in a state of crisis since late February when gang leaders who control much of Port-au-Prince teamed up to attack police stations, prisons, the airport and the seaport in a drive to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Amid the violence, the capital’s international airport and key port have been closed for a month.
The WFP said it had ramped up its work in Haiti in recent weeks, feeding as many as 500,000 people since the latest crisis broke out.
The agency said it had tried to obtain food from local producers but still feared its stocks could run out by the end of this month.
“WFP has only enough food in the country to feed 175,000 people for one month,” it said in a statement, quoting Jean-Martin Bauer, the agency’s country director in Haiti.
He said the agency needed the port to reopen immediately and also required unimpeded access to ship food around the country.
Food insecurity in the Caribbean nation – people not getting enough to eat – had hit the highest level since a devastating earthquake in 2010, the agency said.
Further hampering access to nourishment and other aid, only seven per cent of the UN’s appeal for US$674 million for humanitarian projects had been funded, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Henry said on March 11 that he would resign amid the deadly gang violence, although a deal for a temporary government to replace him has yet to be finalised.
Meanwhile “gang violence is disrupting access to healthcare for Haitians in Port-au-Prince”, Dujarric said.
La Paix University Hospital, the only major such establishment still open, was “overwhelmed” and ambulances were having “difficulty accessing areas that are controlled by these armed gangs”, Dujarric said.