Haiti: Still Threatened by Famine
Gangs in Haiti, June 2024, Photo: @sel529
June 27, 2024 Hour: 3:09 pm
Weeks ago, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that Haiti is getting closer to famine every day.
On Thursday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reiterated its warning that Haiti remains threatened by famine today.
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According to the FAO, the Caribbean country is among the nine nations in the world that could suffer from this scourge, and is one of the five nations where more than 10 percent of the population is in a state of food emergency.
The international agency announced a new phase of acute food insecurity deterioration between June and October 2024.
Weeks ago, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that Haiti is getting closer to famine every day.
“Haitians are on the brink of collapse: one in two people are going hungry today. Rising hunger is exacerbating the country’s security crisis. We need urgent action now: waiting to respond to this situation in its full magnitude is not an option,” stressed WFP’s director here, Jean-Martin Bauer.
He noted that as violence, inflation and poor harvests worsen, levels of food insecurity worsen.
Between August 2023 and February 2024, the cost of the food basket increased by 22 per cent, making food unaffordable for millions of Haitians, he was quoted as saying by Le Nouvelliste.
They are now forced to resort to desperate coping strategies, such as buying on credit and going into debt, selling animals, seeds and other assets to survive.
The newspaper noted that 4.97 million people face higher levels of acute food insecurity, and 1.64 million citizens have already reached emergency status.
Violence hinders the delivery of food and other humanitarian assistance.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: The Star-HaitiLibre
