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Haiti’s government on Friday promised a rapid response to rising hunger in the crisis-hit region. Caribbean More than half the population in the country is facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, a new report has warned.
at least 5.7 million haiti According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on the hunger crisis, 1.9 million people are at the crisis level, with 1.9 million facing emergency levels of hunger.
Last year, about 5.41 million Haitians were at crisis level, the report warns, with that number expected to rise next year.
“The growing influence of armed groups, combined with structural problems and adverse climatic conditions, is affecting the food security of the Haitian population,” it said.
Louis Gerald Gilles, a member of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, announced Friday that the government has launched a plan to quickly mobilize resources for those most in need. He said authorities also created a Food and Nutrition Security Office to ensure effective coordination and appropriate response to rising hunger.
Hunger continues to rise as escalating gang violence has displaced a record 1.3 million people in recent years and deepened poverty, with nearly 6 million Haitians living on less than $2.41 a day. Meanwhile, the cost of food increased by 33% in July compared to the same month last year.
gangs control an estimated 90% Port-au-PrinceHaiti’s capital, and they have also plundered communities in and around Haiti’s central agricultural region in recent months.
“Farmers who have managed to carry out their agricultural activities are forced not only to negotiate access to plots of land but also to share their produce,” the report said. “Families that depended on small businesses have been forced to abandon their sources of income, and many have lost their jobs due to the closure of some businesses located in areas held by armed groups.”
And while this year’s harvest of corn, beans, rice and tubers is projected to be close to normal, few of those goods reach Port-au-Prince because gangs control the main roads leading in and out of the capital.
The report also warns that the situation is being worsened by ongoing mass deportations of Haitians from the US and the Dominican Republic, with more than 150,000 deported from January to September.
“These returnees… lacked everything and were putting pressure on already scarce resources,” the report said.
The areas most affected by hunger include temporary shelters, Port-au-Prince and poor communities in Haiti’s northwest and central region.
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