Hunger in Haiti reaches famine levels as gangs squeeze life out of the capital and beyond

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Nearly 6,000 people in Haiti are starving, with nearly half the country's population of more than 11 million people experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse as gang violence smothers life in the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond, according to a new report released Monday.

The number of Haitians facing crisis, emergency and famine levels of hunger increased by 1.2 million in the past year for a total of 5.4 million as gang violence disrupts the transportation of goods and prevents people from venturing out of their homes to buy food, according to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

“This is one of the highest proportions of acutely food insecure people in any crisis around the world,” said U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.

The 5,636 people who are facing starvation, the worst level, live in makeshift shelters across the metropolitan area, according to the report, which noted that another 2 million Haitians face severe hunger.

“This is shocking,” said Martine Villeneuve, Haiti director for the nonprofit Action Against Hunger. “We were not expecting that level. Two million … is massive.”

Villeneuve told The Associated Press that she also was surprised that some of the 2 million people hit by hunger don't even live in places directly affected by gang violence.

While much of the hunger is directly tied to gang violence, double-digit inflation also has limited what many Haitians can afford to buy, with food now representing 70% of total household expenditures.

The cost of a food basket increased more than 11% in the past year, with inflation hitting 30% in July.

In addition, parts of Haiti are still struggling to recover from the August 2021 earthquake, various drought episodes, and Hurricane Matthew, which struck Haiti as a Category 4 storm in 2016.

Gang violence, however, accounts for most of the hunger, with gangs controlling 80% of Port-au-Prince and the roads that lead to and from northern and southern Haiti, preventing farmers from delivering goods and nonprofits from delivering aid.

From April to June, at least 1,379 people were reported killed or injured, and another 428 kidnapped. In addition, gang violence has left more than 700,000 people homeless in recent years.

A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenya that began in late June and is aimed at quelling gang violence in Haiti has liberated some communities. But officials say much work remains to be done as the U.S., Haiti and others call for a U.N. peacekeeping mission to secure funding and personnel that the current mission lacks.

“Haiti continues to face a worsening humanitarian crisis, with alarming rates of armed gang violence disrupting daily life, forcing more people to flee their homes and levels of acute food insecurity to rise,” the report stated.

In 2014, only 2% of Haiti's population was food insecure, a number that has soared to nearly 50%, according to Mercy Corps, one of several nonprofits that called for an increase in funding on Monday.

Dujarric said humanitarian food agencies and nonprofits in Haiti need an additional $230 million until year's end.

Seventy percent of people living in makeshift shelters are experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse, the report found.

Among those experiencing hunger is Joceline St-Louis, a 28-year-old mother of two boys, 5 and 1. “Food doesn’t come around very often,” she said, adding that she depends on others to feed her children.

“When an organization does provide food, there’s a major fight,” she said.

St-Louis said she has to take her 1-year-old to a clinic so he can receive a peanut butter mix “so that his body doesn’t collapse in my arms.”

“I’m sometimes so depressed that I sometimes want to kill the kids and myself,” she said in a soft voice as she cradled the 1-year-old in her arms while the 5-year-old played with his friends.

In another shelter nearby, Judeline Auguste, 39, said she depends solely on remittances to feed herself and her 8-year-old boy, but the money barely lasts a week.

“It’s very rare that I can get a meal a day,” she said. “My situation is hard not because of me, but because of my son. He looks at other people eating all the time, and he starts crying, ‘Mommy, I’m hungry.’”

Meanwhile, those facing urgent levels of hunger live in Haiti’s northern, central and southern regions, as well as in the capital.

Jean Yonel, who fled his home with his family after gangs raided their neighborhood, said there are days that he, his wife and their seven children eat only white rice or spaghetti.

“I can’t provide every day for these children,” Yonel said. “Sometimes we take just a spoonful of food and leave the rest of the food for the kids so they don’t die.”

Yonel used to work as a mason, but with construction jobs drying up, he is now forced to search for wood to make charcoal. His wife sells second-hand clothes.

On days when they can’t afford a proper meal for their children, she mixes flour with spinach to keep their stomachs from rumbling.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Pierre Richard-Luxama in Port-au-Prince, Haiti contributed.